Phantom's Lagoon
by Blue Angels Song
Summary: Christine Daae was one of the popular sophomores at Garnier High School, but when a class trip goes awry. Christine finds herself marooned on a tropical island with Erik Iofiel, the resident school outcast. The two must overcome their differences and learn to work together in order to survive. It has a back story of Blue Lagoon The Awakening with a Phantom of the Opera twist.
1. Chapter 1-School and the Trip

**A/N: Guess what I'm back and with a new story at that. I know I promised you all that I would not give up on Bleeding Inwardly but honestly I lost my muse for that story. But I am trying to get it back and hope to have another chapter up soon for that. Until then enjoy this story and let me know what you think. Thank you for the talented Partypenguina3 for all her help with editing this chapter. Virtual red roses tied with black satin ribbons for all her hard work she is the most amazing beta ever:)**

**I have always loved "The Blue Lagoon" movies, and so when I went to my local Redbox and saw that they made a new one "The Blue Lagoon; Awakening". I was so excited to watch it and put in on as soon as I got home. Afterwards it left me a little….disappointed - Too little sex, only three months on the island, and surprise no baby (how do you have teenagers have unprotected sex for 3 months and no pregnancy?) This is real life after all.. I know that rules don't usually apply to Hollywood. But stuff like that you can't change. Nature is nature after all you can't change it.**

**Needless to say, I spent the next few days thinking about how I would have made it differently. So I'm taking the parts I liked (characters being in high school), and changing it to fit my preferences. I really hope you'll come along for the ride!**

*Erik and Christine will definitely find some _lemon_ trees on the island ;)

*Banner and character listing on my flikr account the link is on my profile page. Please check it out.*

E/C, As always. Rated M for sexual content and adult language.

Disclaimer: Sorry don't own POTO or BL:( they belong to their rightful owners. I just like to borrow them for my enjoyment and yours. Please don't sue! With that I give you the first chapter of Phantom's Lagoon….

XXXX

Phantom's Lagoon

_It was strange to be with him in this way. I guess it would be strange to be with anyone in this manner. It's not like we talked about this beforehand. I'd seen him around school and I know he'd seen me too. But the events which led us to this? No one could have foreseen. If somebody told me this was gonna happen to me, I would never have believed them and thought they were crazy. Everyone thinks we're dead. Our parents. Our friends. Our teachers. Yet here we were, surviving and making the best of what we could. Making the best of the Blue Lagoon._

Chapter One- School and the Trip

Christine

"Daae, Christine?" the teacher at the front of the room called from his roll list.

"Here," I smiled, shyly, and lifted my hand into the air to get the teacher's attention. I was seated in the back of the class so I did not think he could see me. But who was I kidding, everybody knew who I was, even the teachers who I had yet to meet.

"Curious name. Your father is the-" the teacher began. Mr. Poligny was new to our school; he was covering for our regular teacher Mrs. Kingsliey, who just went onto maternity leave to have her baby. So of course the first thing he noticed was my last name.

"Yeah, violinist," I smiled, sarcastically, biting the end of my pen.

The teacher who we all knew as Mr. Poligny continued with the roll.

"Giry, Margarita?" Mr. Poligny called from his list.

"Present," a girl with long, straight blond hair seated to the right of me nodded. I smiled at her and she winked at me.

"Giudicelli, Carlotta?"

"Here," The girl sitting in front of me raised her red polished fingernails into the air. She was an attractive girl with shoulder length red hair wearing name-brand clothes right up to her earrings. Meg rolled her brown eyes at me and I held in a giggle: Carlotta was the most eccentric one in our group.

The teacher of the literature class grinned as he checked the names off his list and continued.

There were a few snickers around the room of our peers of Garnier High School. The tips of my ears turned scarlet and Meg glared at them all.

High school is like a battle. It's hard and rigorous and if you don't have your allies, you'll most certainly fall into disaster. Luckily for me I was part of the Plastics. We were the school's most exclusive clique: you had to be invited in order to join the group. It was the reigning popular girls and guys led by the queen bee Carlotta. But we each had each others backs. And luckily for me, my best friend was one of the most popular girls in the school. It wasn't as though I didn't like the crowd I hung around with -I did. It's just that I did not believe in what some of them did to the rest of my peers. But I was too much of a coward to say anything to stop the bullying. So I turned a blind eye on it all and pretended nothing happened. I mean, we did not get into trouble with the law or anything, just some harmless pranks here and there. I loved my friends so much. They were the sweetest, most fun and loveable people to be around. It was always us 10- the 10 musketeers, I guess you could say. We'd been tight since we were babies (except Carlotta, Jamie and Maximus who had moved here later and Nadir who I adopted in middle school). I knew we would all be together and never thought anyone else would join our crew. It never occurred to me that things would change with friends gained and lost. I looked around my first period; I smiled at my two best friends aside from Carlotta.

In the desk to my left sat Jamie Jammes. On the other side of Jamie was Kaitlyn Sorelli. Of course, on my right was my best friend and confidante- Margarita Giry.

"Meg!" a voice hissed.

She yawned and peered at the boy to her side. I grinned at him and he nodded back.

It was Raoul Chainey; he and his brother were the hottest boys in our school. Raoul was the star quarterback, leading man of the school's Theater Company, and front man of the school's most popular band.

"What, Raoul?" she asked.

"What time are we supposed to be here tomorrow?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes; "You're supposed to keep up with your own schedule, Raoul. I'm not your mother."

"Oh, just tell me," he begged quietly as the teacher rambled on with the roll.

She shook her head, "I'm afraid I can't do that, Raoul. You must learn responsibility."

Raoul scowled and sat back in his chair.

I leaned over to Meg, "Do you know the time we are supposed to meet up?"

She smiled, "No, but that's what I have you for."

I rolled my blue eyes and sat back. Meg Giry. She was funny, brilliant, beautiful, smart and the school's prima ballerina. I loved my best friend, as did the rest of the school.

I peered around the room at my friends, Jamie (fun, goofy cheerleader, and actress), Holden Salinger (a fellow actor and Jamie's boyfriend), Raoul, Maximus Gaden (the class clown and actor as well), Andy Starr (his last name fit him well), Carlotta Guidicelli (the queen bee, sometimes sweet, sometimes snotty diva bitch that happened to be Max's girlfriend), and Nadir Khan (sweet, smart, funny and a total gem all around). He was something else entirely, a creature of his own making. Nadir was not officially part of the group but I adopted him anyways. He was my saving grace from insanity when I felt like I was going off the deep end. I don't know what I would do without him and Meg. Nadir was popular when he wanted to be and a total recluse when he was bored of it. Kids let him do as he pleased, which was interesting, to say the least. Nadir was just different. He was completely cool in every way, amazingly fun, and hilarious. He hung out with who he wanted when he wanted and played nice with the rest. I just loved him. He was the brother I thought I would never have. Each one of my friends brought a different personality to the group. Without one, none of us would be who we presently were.

Mr. Poligny finally got all the names and took the attendance to the door. Some kid picked it up and he walked back to his desk.

"Now, class, earlier this year some of you signed up to go on a trip to build a school for the kids in Trinidad. As you all might know, there is an informational meeting this period in Mr. Firmin's room. I have a list of all the students in my class so if I call your name please report to Mr. Firmin's room immediately." Mr. Poligny said, picking up a sheet of paper off his desk and proceeding to read the names off the list.

"Christine Daae, Margarita Giry, Carlotta Giudicelli, Raoul Chainey, and Andy Starr. If I did not call your names, please turn to page 100."

There were many groans and sighs but not from me. I didn't mind at all, but it wasn't like it mattered. Literature class was one of my favorite classes. I loved reading -unlike most of my school's population. I loved doing schoolwork and if it wasn't for me being in the Plastics I would be consider a book worm. So I shook off the idea and proceeded to collect my belongings and headed out of my first period class to Mr. Firmin's room. Meg, Raoul, Andy and Carlotta were following behind me. We walked down the hall in silence and soon separated due to Carlotta, Raoul and Andy needing to stop by their lockers.

"Please tell me you are going to get with him?" Meg asked, pulling on my arm and staring after the one and only Raoul Chainey. "If not for you, for me!"

I rolled my eyes at my best friend as we walked to our meeting. Earlier this year, we had signed up to go on a trip to build a school for the kids in Trinidad. The trip was open to grades 10th to 12th. Of course, there were stipulations you had to meet in order to qualify to go. Some being down right ridiculous like you had to have missed less than twenty days of school to even sign up. But seeing as I did not have that problem and had perfect attendance, I did not have to worry about that. It had cost my parents a fortune to send me, but they knew how badly I had wanted to go and how much it would help my GPA for Princeton.

"Honestly, Meg. I don't know whose worse –you or Carlotta." I replied back.

Raoul just wasn't any boy but a very different looking boy. He was a boy that looked like he should be surfing the waves of California instead of standing in the front of his locker in an itty bitty town in Georgia. He was a contradiction to the popular belief of what you would think a football star would be. Raoul always seemed to be a bit nervous. That made me feel nervous whenever I was alone with him. If a guy that gorgeous was looking a bit shy, I felt as though I should be petrified. He was stunning to say the least. His hair was honey colored and a bit long but not too long. It fell in waves down to a little below his ears. He had a nice sun kissed golden tan. Even standing where I was, you could see his eyes were a piercing blue. And he was tall and muscularly built.

"Oh, come on, Chris, you wound me." She said clutching at her heart in a dramatic fashion. "It's Raoul were talking about."

"Yeah, I know that and I get it. But you know that if and when I decide to do anything with Raoul that it's going to be on my time. And it's going to be my little secret." I said while trying not to blush about the idea of Raoul and me.

"OK, you say that now but I know you and you can't keep secrets from me for very long." She said with a knowing smile.

"That's not true." I said trying to keep the smile from spreading across my face. The truth of the matter was that Meg has this ability to pry anything out of me. It was hard to keep secrets from her. Not that I wanted to but it would be nice just for my thoughts to be mine and mine alone.

"I knew it. You do have a secret you are keeping from me. Now spill it."

"I do not. Now Meg, come on, we have to hurry or we'll be late!" I said changing the subject as I pulled her along with me.

"Oh Christine, it's alright if we're a little late, they'll probably just tell us everything we already know. And don't think I know what you're doing. Changing the subject will not save you. I will get it out of you at lunch." She said with a sly smile.

I just shook my head. Once Meg sets a task for herself, she won't give up until she accomplished what she set out for. It's one of the annoying qualities that I love about my best friend. I knew that I had a long day ahead of me and I secretly hoped lunch would never come. I just wanted to get to this meeting and go on this trip. I had been looking forward to it since last year when I started high school. I didn't care; I needed this and I wanted to be able to enjoy my time there. I knew Meg wasn't taking this as seriously, but I needed this just as much as anyone else. I needed a good scholarship just to help pay for my tuition.

We ran into the class just as Mr. Firmin was talking about the trip. We stopped in the doorway as the class all looked up at us. Just as Mr. Firmin was about to say something, someone came rushing into the room and banged into me.

"Whoa, careful there Prom Queen." They said.

I looked over and saw Mason Harris. He was well known for being the school's trouble maker. He was also the captain of the school's football team. How he got to go on this trip I will never know. I bet his daddy had a lot to do with it seeing as he is on the board of directors, I thought to myself as he went to sit in the empty desk in the back. Meg pulled my arm to the two empty desks near the front. Mr. Firmin watched us.

"I expected Mr. Harris to be late but I would have thought better from you two, Ms. Daae and Ms. Giry." Mr. Firmin said. He was not a particularly short man but not tall either. He had dark brown hair and watery brown eyes; he frowned at our late entrance, but continued with his speech about our trip. We were set to leave tomorrow morning and then catch our plane. In less than 48 hours we would be in Trinidad.

Meg turned around in her seat and looked towards the back of the class, at Mason.

"Someone's daddy must have paid a fortune for him to come on this trip." She said.

I looked back at Mason, who was staring right back at me. I quickly turned back to the front of the class, feeling my cheeks going red.

XXXX

The rest of my classes passed in a blur and all too quickly the bell went off sounding for lunch. I took my time putting away my supplies from my history class. Knowing that I would not be able to put off the inevitable for much longer, I picked up my book bag and set out for lunch.

Just like I predicted, Meg was waiting for me at my locker. She waited patiently while I opened my locker and put my backpack in there. But I knew I could not keep her at a bay for much longer and as soon as the door closed I knew what would happen.

"So, I'm assuming you are all packed and ready for the trip tomorrow. And what I mean by packed is that you have something in your suitcase for Raoul." Meg said giving me her 'don't think you can hide anything from me' look.

"Don't think that look is going to work on me, Margarita Giry. It may work on Jamie but it's not going to work on me anymore." I said as we were walking towards the cafeteria. "But yes, I'm all packed and ready to go."

"I'm taking that as a yes you have packed something for him. If you didn't there is still time to hit the mall after school to pick something up for him."

"Still not telling you and nice try. But no, I don't need to hit the mall." I said in a teasing tone.

"If you say so. Am I at least allowed to know what you packed?" She asked me in a pleading tone.

"I'm assuming you're asking about what I packed for the trip?" I asked shaking my head knowing that Meg was getting desperate. I just enjoyed teasing her to no end, but knowing at the end of the day I will eventually tell her everything. Meg was right: I was horrible at keeping secrets from her.

"Duh, what do you think I'm talking about? The trip is tomorrow, but if you still need help picking out an outfit for Raoul, you know I would just love to help." She said in a suggestive tone wagging her eyebrows.

"Meg, how long have you known me?

"Exactly, so what are you bringing?"

"It's a class trip; it's not like I'm going to be sunbathing. I'm just bringing my assigned T shirt, pajamas and some shorts."

"Ugh, you are so boring Chris. I can't believe you're just going to throw away such a wonderful opportunity to get close to Raoul. But I'm glad we are going together and just think at the end of the day we'll get some quality party time."

"You know, Meg, we are not going there to party but to help build a school." I told her evenly.

"Right... So you say, but I'm sure you'll change your mind once you get there. I know you, Chris, you have never been able to pass up a great party. Especially if Raoul goes to one."

"It's not some glorified vacation Meg, and we can't treat it like one. It's two weeks worth of hard work and building a school for the kids in Trinidad. I just really hope they pair us up into teams and maybe Raoul will be on ours."

"Oh, so you are interested in Raoul," Meg teased.

I rolled my eyes. "I have a boyfriend, Meg, and no, I'm not interested in Raoul. I just don't want to work with anybody that's not strong. He's one of the star players on the football team so I know that he would be very strong."

"You can't tell me you're not at all attracted to him though. He's a junior and everyone's been saying how he signed up to go on that trip just to get closer to you. He wants to fuck you, be grateful."

"Oh, ok, I'll just ask Ethan for a hall pass," I said sarcastically. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I screwed around behind his back."

"Oh, Ethan-Smeathan. You know that he's like moving in like, a month, I'm sure he'd get over it and wouldn't mind in the least. Why you guys haven't broken up and are still together. I will never understand no matter how many times you try to explain it to me. But it's not like you're going to see him again after he moves to Alabama next month. Anyways, it shouldn't matter to him what you do while on this trip. We're in high school, Chris; stuff like this happens all the time. It was cute while it lasted but you need something more than a childish puppy romance. But now it's time to move on to bigger and better things. I mean, you guys have been together for two years now and as of yet you have not had sex. I would think that if you cared for him in anyway that you would have had sex by now. What does that tell you?"

"That we respect each other."

"Nice try. But no, it means that either one, he's screwing someone else; two, he's gay; or three, he just isn't that into you." She said while ticking off the reasons with her fingers.

"Oh, whatever. We'll have sex when we're ready. I still have three weeks left with him. Who says I won't have sex with him when I get back." I replied back evenly.

"You say that now, Chris. You keep saying that and I'm not trying to pressure you into doing anything you don't want to do. I'm just trying to get you to see that you do have options open to you. But if Raoul were to proposition you while on the trip..."

I couldn't help but smile. Raoul was one of the hottest guys in school, and I was definitely lying when I said I wasn't interested. Ethan was a good guy and my parents really liked him, but we had already been together for so long that he was starting to feel more like a brother than a boyfriend. Then add in the fact that he was moving a state away. Perhaps Meg was right, maybe it was time to move on to bigger and better things.

"Oh, I knew it!" she squealed.

"Why are you so happy about the idea of Raoul and I anyway? Don't you like him?"

"Yes, but he likes you and now I can live vicariously through you."

"Hey, guys, you heading to lunch?" Carlotta asked while walking up to us. She had her lapdog Ubaldo Piangi trailing behind her. He was carrying her books like usual. It seemed like every month she had a new man candy (that's what she calls her 'slaves') so this did not surprise me. But the fact that Piangi has outlasted the others did surprise me. The girls and I joked that she was quite taken with him. Of course, she denied this and just said that he was more useful than the others and so he became a member of our group. An offer not freely given out to many people. Piangi was a short chubby sophomore with dark brown unruly curly hair that stood up everywhere. He wore big geeky glasses that kept sliding down his nose which cause him to push them up quite often. What Carlotta saw in him I would never know, but that was her choice.

"Yep. We sure are." Meg replied back, flipping her blonde locks behind her.

"Hurry, hide me!" Kaitlyn said quickly as she ran toward us.

"What's going on? Is a ghost after you or something?" I asked, amused.

"That Erik freak is looking for me," she said, full of disgust.

I felt the amusement leave my face and suddenly I was angry. Pissed was more like it. Meg put a calming hand on my shoulder to calm me down before I did something stupid and regret it later. So I just bit my tongue and kept my cool the best I could. 'Where was Nadir when I needed him the most?' I asked myself as I listened to what my friends had to say.

"Why?" Carlotta asked with a giggle.

"Did you forget to pay him for the homework he did for you?" Jamie said, appearing out of nowhere.

"No," she said sourly. "I have him in my poetry class and he wrote a poem for me. Dear God, it was so embarrassing. I thought I was going to die if I heard another word come out of his mouth." Kaitlyn said, shivering with revulsion.

Jamie and Carlotta just stared at her in shock for a moment, and then they both busted out and started laughing. Erik Iofiel was considered to be the biggest loser in school. The fact that they thought he was in apparently in love with one of my best friends was the funniest thing that they had ever heard. I did not think it was funny and neither did Meg. We just stared at each other while they laughed their heads off. Just because we were the most popular girls in the sophomore class, they thought how could a freak like him ever think he stood a chance?

Erik was a fifteen year old musical prodigy who everyone thought was a freak, and sequentially was a total outcast. But it wasn't because everyone thought he was ugly. Erik was sorta cute in a Harry Potter-like way. All the girls secretly thought so, a few not so secretly. But, no one went out with him, because he was weird. And yeah, he was pretty weird. But, a lot of that was just his genius intensity peaking through. See, I understood him; I was just afraid to admit it to anyone.

Sure, he was unconventional to say the least, but he was harmless. He was short for a guy but taller than me standing at 5ft 3inches. Erik's midnight dark brown hair fell to little below his ears in soft waves. It was a stark contrast that stood out against his pale skin. He was quite thin, but a bit too fit to be considered scrawny, with taut and sinewy muscles that were well-defined even under his clothing. Erik always wore the color black from head to toe. His clothing was always made up of a black button down dress-shirt, black trousers, and black dress shoes. I wondered sometimes to myself if he owned any clothing that was not black. Sometimes he would also wear a pair of wire rimmed glasses. I did not know if they were prescription or if he wore them for a fashion sense. I just knew that sometimes I would see him wear them and sometimes he would not. But the most unique thing about Erik was the white porcelain mask that covered the whole right side of his face down to his lips. It was the first thing that caught my immediate attention when I first met him in middle school.

I was pretty sure Erik only had one true friend in the whole school and that was Nadir. It made my stomach hurt just thinking about it. I could never imagine having only one friend to hang around with. Seeing as how I was always surrounded by people, I would never know that kind of loneliness. I could never know just how much it sucked. I hated to see anyone in that much pain and poor Erik Iofiel seemed to be in its constant state. But one of the best qualities about Erik was he did not seem to care. It was like he did not even notice people making fun of him or he did not led on that he cared. He would just brush off the comments and go about his business. I felt bad for not standing up for him but the truth of the matter was that deep down inside I was a coward myself. So, I just let my friends bully Erik and pretended that nothing was wrong with it. But I was slowly getting sick and tired of it.

"Aw... I think he might have a little crush on you. Maybe you should ask him out." I heard Carlotta shout, snapping me out of my reverie.

"Oh, I think you should be nice and kiss him behind the portables. It would make his year," Jamie choked out through her laughter.

"Make his year? That would be the highlight of his life!" Carlotta added.

"Ew, I don't even want to think about it," Kaitlyn said, disturbed by the thought. "I'd rather kiss the pickled toads in bio."

"Oh look, here he comes now," Jamie said while they tried to control their laughter.

"Kaitlyn, I just wanted to apologize for the poem; I didn't realize that it would be embarrassing," Erik mumbled quietly while looking down at the ground.

It was a simple apology to one of my best friends. But, dear God those short words were enough to make me internally swoon. His voice was deep and dark and sexy as holy hell. 'My God, his voice was so attractive.' I thought to myself.

"I should have given it to you in private so here," he said and held out a piece of folded paper.

I didn't want to laugh. I tried to tell myself that this was not funny. But I could not stop myself. Seeing him standing there with the note in his hand, that was just something else. I thought Kaitlyn was joking when she said that he wrote her a poem. I tried to hold it in, I even bit the inside of my cheek to try to let the pain overcome it, but nothing worked and I broke out laughing. Meg laughed with me, but Kaitlyn just looked revolted.

"Um... I can see that now's not the best time either," he said completely humiliated by our hysterics. The left side of his face turned a bright crimson and I felt like a complete jerk for laughing at him and playing the stuck up bitch towards him but the truth of the matter was that I was just afraid to stand up to my friends and defend him. I just wanted the floor to swallow me whole so that I could be at peace. I felt bad for him and disgusted with myself. But of course, my pity wasn't enough to stop the rolling laughter, and finally Kaitlyn saw the humor in it and laughed with us despite herself.

"Sorry," he mumbled and then turned and practically ran away.

"Wow, that was really mean," Amya came out of nowhere and said.

"What's it to you?" Kaitlyn asked sharply. Amya Cruz was our friend freshman year, but she broke away from the group because she thought we were all bitches, which I guess we sort of were. I was never intentionally mean to anyone, but if something was funny, I was definitely going to laugh.

"I just think you guys should really think before you talk. Someday your bullying is going to come back to bite you in your asses," Amya said.

Bullying? Is that what we were doing? Bullying was pushing and sticking heads in toilets and such. We never did anything like that nor would we want to. A little laughter never hurt anyone, at least that was what I told myself.

"Oh, we're so scared," Carlotta said mockingly. "Come on guys, let's ditch the rest of the day and buy ourselves a new party outfit for our trip."

"Um... I don't think-" I replied back.

"Come on Chris we have like two periods left anyways." Kaitlyn said with a pleading tone.

"And tomorrow starts the weekend so it's not like you're going to miss something important. Besides, Mrs. Jammes can just fix the attendance." Mrs. Jammes was Jamie's mom and she worked in the front office and would sometimes alter the attendance so that we could get out of class. I did not do this but Carlotta, Kaitlyn and Jamie would do it here and there. I thought to myself and contemplated my reasons not to ditch. In the end, I could not find it in me to say no.

"So, if that's what you're worried about, it's taken care of. Right, Jamie?" Carlotta said, not knowing that I already agreed to ditch.

"Please." Meg piped in for the first time.

"Alright, alright. Let's go to the mall." I said, giving into my friends demands.

XXXX

I spent the next few hours thinking about my relationship with Ethan. He really was a great guy and there wasn't a girl in school who wouldn't want to be with him, but Raoul was just Raoul. He was a god on legs and the thought of being with him in that way actually made me flustered. I wanted him, and if he made a pass at me while on the trip, I'd definitely lose my virginity. Meg was right, I needed to be prepared for it and buy myself some sexy underwear. So I bought myself some and decided to just let whatever happens on the trip to happen. I spent the next couple of hours shopping and trying on different outfits and got home late. I ate dinner, took a shower, and packed some of my new outfits. Then I went to bed and had dreams about me and Raoul.

XXXX

Six a.m. came way too early for me as the bleeping of my alarm clock pounded against the thin curtains of my dreams, drawing me back into reality when my dreams were much, much nicer. It was all the things I couldn't do when I opened my eyes. Adventure, spontaneity and it was all done with Raoul, which was why I was so reluctant to open my eyes to the present. But the alarm clock was persistent in its beeping and my eyes finally opened halfway, trying their best to block out the sun as I reached over and pounded on the tiny button to get the thing to shut up. I lay there just a few more minutes until I knew I couldn't anymore. The quiet was no longer peaceful, so I tossed my blanket to the side and pulled myself out of bed.

"Come on, time to get up!" I muttered to myself. "Must get ready for the trip." My feet padded lazily around my room, going through all the motions of my perfectly crafted morning routine. Pick out clothes first. Shower second. Get dressed. Brush teeth. Dry hair. Brush hair. Fix hair in a pleasing manor. Wipe excess condensation off the mirror. Make up. Shoes.

I shoved through my drawers until I found some skinny jeans and a dark blue tank top that would be suitable for the trip. I grabbed them and opened my bedroom door and headed towards the bathroom.

Wrenching off my black spaghetti top and ash gray sweats I used as sleepwear, I turned on the shower and waited for it to hit lukewarm and stepped inside. Enjoying the warm water against her skin, I then preceded to wash my hair and body. After I was done, I turned off the water; I stepped out and grabbed a towel to dry off. Once that was done I pulled on my selected clothing, before walking to the vanity sink to brush my teeth. Once that was done, I proceeded to do my hair. I removed a brush from the top drawer and attempted to tame the wild, brown curls that nested atop my head. Once that was done, I did my make up and went back to her room to grab my white Nikes. I grabbed my sneakers and light blue satchel backpack. Holding my shoes in one hand and my backpack in the other, I hurried down the hall and nearly tripped down the stairs in my haste. I met my parents in the dining room and nodded a quick hello as my dad smiled at me. Plopping down in the nearest chair, I proceeded to pull on my shoes, glancing repeatedly at the clock on the wall making sure I was not running late. Once I was finished, I stood up from my chair to greet my parents.

"Good morning, Mom. Good morning, Dad." I said giving both my parents a hug and a kiss.

"Good morning, princess." My dad said, pulling a plate out of the cabinet.

"Good morning, darling." My mom said, making pancakes. She flipped it over as soon as it was done and my dad handed her the plate. "I hope you don't mind having pancakes for breakfast." She said as my dad set the plate before me.

"Thank you, Mom, this looks great." I said as I started eating the pancakes.

"You're welcome." Mom said as she turned off the stove and put the pan in the sink.

"So, are you excited about the trip?" Dad asked as he sat down with his own plate of pancakes.

"Super excited. I'm just happy to be a part of it all. I just hope the kids like it." I said, taking a sip of orange juice.

"Your father and I are so proud of you. I can't believe you're leaving us for two weeks." Mom said as tears started falling down from her sapphire blue eyes. She quickly wiped them away and gave me a happy smile.

"Oh, Mom, please don't cry. I promise I'll be back before you have time to miss me." I said trying to cheer my mom up. "I'll promise to call you everyday and send emails."

"Thank you, princess, that means a lot to us. Just promise us not to get married while you're away." Dad said, trying to lighten up the mood.

I chuckled. "I don't think that will be a problem. But sure, I promise you not to get married while I'm away. I can't say the same when I get back." I said, giving my parents a loving smile.

I secretly hoped one day to have a marriage just like the one my parents had. They always told me the one person to marry was your best friend. While I didn't see myself marring Ethan in the near future, I could understand what they were talking about. Cameron Daaé and Cathryn Daaé had been young when they were married, and completely in love. They traveled far and wide, performing duets as Cameron played the violin and Cathryn sang. Their angelic music was not only heavenly to the ear, but to see them perform together was almost to fall in love yourself. From the way they looked into each others eyes, to how their emotions flowed through the air in song, they could only be bested by few. For all their talent, the Daaé's only performed at shows and festivals, thus they earned little more than what they needed to easily get by. They didn't want fame and fortune. They were happy as they were. That was the type of marriage I wanted. I cleared my thoughts and concentrated on finishing my breakfast.

XXXX

"Okay, call when you get the chance. Drink lots of water and eat and keep your hat on at the site. Don't forget sunscreen too, Christine, you know how-"

"Mom," I interjected. "I'll be fine, don't worry. The school has every hour filled with something. Plus, I'll be in the hotel most of the time, other than when we're building and doing the excursions." I said, trying to keep my mother from panicking. She had this tendency to think about all the bad stuff that could happen.

My mom nodded and handed me my suitcase. She pulled me closely for a hug. I could hear her small sobs in my hair.

"I love you." I whispered. She pulled away and kissed my forehead.

"I love you too." She whimpered. "Call me right when you land. Alright, go. Have fun baby."

I pulled away and proceeded to say goodbye to my father. "I love you, Dad." I said as I pulled him into a hug.

"I love you too, Lotte. May angels surround you and protect you." He whispered into my hair and he pulled back to kiss me on my cheek.

"Bye." I smiled weakly at both my parents and ran to the bus.

I set my bag down with the others and turned to check in with Mr. Firmin. I looked across the street to wave to my mom and dad. I saw Erik hopping out of his mom's shiny black Mercedes. He didn't even look over to his mom to say bye, he just walked away.

He started walking towards me and looked at me as he passed. He shook his head and looked to the ground. I turned to watch him as he put his bag down and headed on the bus.

"Ew." Carlotta said, coming up behind me. "Please tell me you are not scoping out Mr. Outcast."

"I think he's kind of cute, actually, in that quiet nerdy way." Mariah said. She was a junior and in my bio class.

"Actually, he went to my elementary school," Bella said. She was the new girl in school and she just moved here from Washington. Bella was another sophomore and in my choir class.

"Well," Meg said, throwing her bag down. "When Raoul Chainey is trying to get with her, she won't just hold back because of loner boy."

"Do I get a say in this?" I asked. Meg shook her head.

"Nope." We all laughed and went onto the bus.

**A****/N: Well, Erik is a geek and Christine is a bitch, obviously we have a long way to go with these two. Anyone interested? Like it hate it let me know. Please R&R.**


	2. Chapter 2- Party and a Island

**A/N: I know some of you reading my story are not liking Christine right now but I promise you that things will change soon. Just hang in there and I promise you a happy ending. Also I just wanted to give you all a heads up that this story is going to mostly in Christine POV. I will have some chapters in Erik's but most are going to be in Christine's. Thank you to all you wonderful people reading, following, ****favoring****, and reviewing. I can't say how much it means to me knowing that my story is being read and enjoyed by so many people. Thank you again to PartyPenguina3 for being the best beta in the world. **

**Disclaimer: Sorry don't own POTO or BL:( they belong to their rightful owners. I just like to borrow them for my enjoyment and yours. Please don't sue!**

Phantom's Lagoon

Chapter Two- Party and a Island

"Okay, I need all the boys to take these and bring them into classroom three." Mr. Firmin called.

I was sawing out the desks for classroom two. Everyone was hard at work. It was our second day working on the school and we had already accomplished a lot. There were two other high schools here and with their help we already had all the walls up.

"Hey! Hey!" I heard Mr. Firmin scream. He rushed by me and looked up on the roof of the school. "Be careful up there!"

I looked over and saw Mason Harris on the roof of the school. He was hopping along the edge. He looked over to Mr. Firmin and jumped backwards. I heard someone come up behind me.

"He's going to ruin this for all of us." Raoul said. He looked down at me and touched my shoulder. "You should cover up or put more sunscreen on; you're going to burn."

"Thanks." I smiled. I unwrapped my shirt from my waist and put it on, covering my shoulders.

"Are you kidding me now?" Meg said, coming up behind me. "You made contact. Skin to skin contact! Oh my God, you are so getting laid!"

"Please Meg," I said, rolling my eyes. "We're here to help people."

"I am!" Meg said in her defense. "I'm helping you ... get laid."

We both started laughing.

XXXX

"Get your asses out of bed!" Screamed Carlotta as she barged into our hotel room.

"What's wrong?" Meg asked, putting down her magazine.

"Okay," She began. "This guy I met onsite today was telling me about this guy he had met who's a local. Anyways, Project Carnival is happening, tonight! Him and a few other people are leaving now, but the boat leaves in a half an hour."

"Chris!" Meg squealed. "We're going!"

"We have to be onsite tomorrow." I said. "We should get a good night's sleep."

"We won't be later than twelve." Carlotta said. "Maybe two."

I rolled my eyes and then jumped up from the couch.

"Two is the latest." We screamed as we all jumped up and started getting ready for a night of partying.

XXXX

"This is amazing!" Meg said.

"I'm going to find some drinks!" Called Carlotta. "Want any?"

"Hell yeah!" Meg said.

"I'm fine." I said quietly. "I'm not drinking."

"Suit yourself." Carlotta said.

It really was pretty amazing. The boat was huge and everyone seemed to be having some kind of fun. We were just floating in the ocean now. It looked like it was about to storm. I was happy I had decided to wear my skinny jeans and a light blue camisole tank top and a black lacy cover top shirt.

I started to look around the boat. I caught the smell of alcohol mixed with weed. I really hoped Meg was smart enough not to get drunk and do something stupid.

The music was blasting and there were carnival dancers on the top deck. The boat was packed. Most of the people here were from the high schools. I had seen most of them on the site the past few days. I spotted Raoul standing at one of the rails at the back of the boat. He must've caught sight of me because he gave me a dashing smile and waved me over. I slowly started walking up towards him.

"You look stunning, Christine." Raoul said, giving me a once over. I could feel the weight of his eyes upon me, and I relished it. I could see by the light that those eyes were blue as the clear summer sky. They were nothing short of adoring. He could have been gazing upon a statue of the Virgin Mary. I felt like a goddess beneath Raoul's gaze. I had never considered myself terribly beautiful, but I knew he felt differently…this was a different kind of appreciation, however. I could not put a name to it.

"You don't look so bad yourself." I said, chuckling. I took a moment to study Raoul from head to toe. His honey blond wavy locks were combed off his forehead and pulled into a pony tail. He was wearing a dark blue and white striped button down shirt with a dark gray vest and dark blue denim jeans that fit him like a glove and showed off all his best assets. A picture popped up into my mind of what he would look like naked. I felt my whole body start to flush. My cheeks felt like they were blazing like the summer dawn, rosy and warm.

"So angels do blush." Raoul said in a seductive tone.

"I wouldn't know." I said in a husky tone. 'Dear God was that really my voice?' I questioned myself.

"I think you would, seeing as you are one." He said slowly, leaning over towards me. He looked down at my lips and I could feel my breath catch in my throat. This was really about to happen. I was going to kiss Raoul, the star football player and most popular boy at our school. Raoul looked back up into my eyes asking the question with his eyes. I could see the need in his eyes and I felt my body come alive like a live wire.

"Raoul…" His name came off my lips longing, almost a plea. I needed this; I wanted this; I waited for something to happen. My eyes started to trail slowly from his well-loved face to his neck, shoulders, and his chest… And finally the swell in his jeans, one I had either never noticed or had the decency not to dwell on before. Then they made their way up to his eyes again.

Before I could process what I was doing. I pressed my lips against his hard. He had moved as though he was in a dream a moment before. Now, Raoul's arms went quickly around me, pulling me against him though there was no more space between us now. Her lips were demanding, hungry, and it was my tongue that traced along his bottom lip, demanding entrance. His parted then. Our tongues danced together for a heartbeat, then Raoul pulled away to draw breath. His eyes shone with a light I had never seen there before.

"Do you have any idea how lovely you are right now?" he murmured.

Raoul smiled, but the strange light had not left his eyes. "My little Lotte…" He touched my cheek tenderly and then his hand moved, the tips of his fingers running lightly over my jawbone, then the curve of my neck, then my collarbone, stopping only when he came to the lace of my top.

He met my eyes, then, asking my permission to continue. I swallowed hard and nodded. My breath had caught in my throat at his touch, and suddenly all thought of speaking seemed impossible, absurd…

He kissed me again. It was hungrier still than the last. One of his arms had wound around my slender waist, holding me close; the other hand had moved from my wrist to the back of my neck. Now both my hands were pressed against his chest, burning me. I was now very aware of just how little clothing stood between us. Raoul's desire for me was tangible now; it pressed against my hip through the thin materials of his jean.

Even then, Raoul's teeth grazed against my lower lip and I moaned into our kiss. "Raoul…" We parted, both of us gasping for breath, and I thought it must be an amusing and pitiful sight as if we had gone tearing along the shore, breathless from the exertion, when in fact we had simply been standing there…

"Christine." Again, Raoul was seeking my permission. His voice was still husky, full of longing, but still tentative. He was playing absent-mindlessly with the fabric of my shirt, looking imploringly at me, like a child asking his mother for a toy he admired. Just before I was going to kiss him again a huge swell hit the boat and I suddenly felt dizzy. I stepped away from Raoul.

"Are you alright?" He asked me with concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just need a moment." I said, still trying not to throw up. "Excuse me please." I said walking towards the direction I thought the restroom was. "I'll be just a moment."

"Take your time." Raoul replied back and gave me a half smile.

I found the rest room and rinsed my mouth and splashed some cool water on my forehead. Once I felt my stomach start to settle, I walked out of the bathroom and stopped to grab a drink for Raoul and me. I remembered telling my friends that I would not drink, but what the hell. I was on a roll. I had just kissed the guy of my dreams. That deserved a little bit of celebration. I took a sip and started walking back towards Raoul. I drank the rest of my drink and stopped to grab another one.

"Here, try this." A voice said behind me.

Spinning around, I came face to face with a, very cute, guy. His hair was dark brown and short. I don't typically like guys with short hair but it seemed to suit him. His stature seemed fit and his jaw prominent. His eyes were dark brown and very familiar... He was wearing jeans and a simple dress shirt, but he still managed to make it look amazing. It was Mason and he was holding a drink in his hand.

"No thank you." I said, intending to walk away.

"I promise I put nothing in it. What kind of guy do you take me for?" He said with a bemused smile playing across his lips.

"I said no thank you." I said and walked away.

"Whatever, prom queen." I heard him say.

As I went towards the back of the boat I caught sight of Meg. She was kissing some guy. I started walking towards them and then stopped when I saw who it was she was kissing. It was Raoul Chainey. I felt my heart catch in my throat and angry tears started to form in my eyes. One fell down without my permission and I quickly wiped it away with the pad of my fingers. How could they do this to me? I questioned myself.

"Is that your boyfriend or something?" I heard someone say. Spinning around I came face to face with Mason yet again. He was leaning over a couch; he had a beer in his hand and was motioning over to Raoul and Meg.

"Excuse me?" I asked. He raised his eyebrow and sipped on his beer.

"I asked if that was your boyfriend, Prom Que-."

"Queen" I said, finishing his sentence for him.

"You look like you could use a drink?" Mason asked me with a sly smile.

I was about to turn his offer down but thought what the heck. So what if I had a few drinks tonight? It wasn't like I drank all the time. "Yeah, I could use one." I replied back as Mason walked around from the couch. I just needed something to take my mind off of my best friend making out with the guy of my dreams.

Mason was a senior and captain of the football team and quite the little trouble maker. I knew I should have stayed away from him but something about him tonight drew me in. For some reason, the thought of Meg and Raoul making out kept popping into my mind and I found my eyes drawn to them. Yep, they were still there. I could not find it in myself to hate them. I always knew there was a spark between them, even though they both tried to deny it. Still doesn't mean I have to like it. I felt bile rise in my throat and turned back around to divert all my attention back to Mason. I started to flirt with him.

"So what's a sexy thing like you doing all by himself?" I asked, trying my best to flirt with him.

"How about I get you that drink?" He said with a chuckle.

"That sounds like a great idea. Lead the way sexy." I said feeling the blush start to rise to my cheeks.

"Hmm... You think I'm sexy now don't you?" Mason said, stepping closer to me.

"Maybe… What if I did?" I asked, giving him my most flirtatious smile.

"I would say that I think I need to get you that drink before I change my mind and do something I know that you would regret." Mason said with a devilish smile. "Wait right here; I'll be right back."

Mason was not gone very long and was back before I knew it with two glasses in his hand. The drink was blue in color and had one of those little umbrellas inside it. He handed one to me and took a sip from the other one. I took a slow, cautious sip from my glass. It tasted a little off. It was very strong and I thought that was because of the alcohol. I did not do much drinking and so did not know much about drinks. Maybe it was supposed to taste like this. I took another sip and started to feel a little dizzy.

"Wow, it's so beautiful," I said facing the ocean. I had just finished my drink and set the glass down.

"Yeah, it's one of those half moons," Mason replied.

"Half moons? Don't you mean a crescent moon?" I asked with a flirtatious giggle.

"You know what I mean." Mason said with a chuckle.

We stood there just looking over at the ocean and suddenly I got a feeling like homesickness. I was really starting to miss my parents. Who was I kidding, this was not me. I just don't drink and flirt with guys. I'm not that type of girl. Mason must have sensed my mood and immediately tried to cheer me up.

"Are you sure you're OK? I could tell you a joke if that would cheer you up. You look a little down in the dumps." Mason said with a grin.

"Yeah, I would like that. Thank you."

Mason then proceeded to tell me a joke. "A man goes to his doctor and complains that his wife hasn't wanted to have sex with him for the past six months. The doctor tells the man to bring his wife in so he can talk to her and hopefully determine what the problem is. The following day, the wife goes to the doctor's office. The doctor asks her what's wrong, why doesn't she want to have sex with her husband? "Oh, that's easily explained. For the past six months," the wife says, "I've been taking a cab to work every morning. I don't have any money. The cab driver asks me, 'Are you going to pay today, or what?' So, I take an 'or what'." "Then, when I get to work," she continues, "I'm late, so the boss asks me, 'Are we going to write this down in the book, or what?' So, I take an 'or what'. "I take a cab to go home after work and, as usual, I have no money. The cab driver asks me again, 'So, are you going to pay this time, or what?' Again, I take an 'or what'. "So you see, doc, by the time I get home I'm all tired out and don't want it anymore." "Yes, I see," replies the doctor. "So, are we going to tell your husband, or what?"

"Wow," I said after a moment.

"Yeah, that was kind of a bad one, huh?" he said with a laugh.

"Yes, definitely bad…. Besides, if you wanted my panties down, you could have just come out and said so," I said boldly surprising myself with the comment. I did not mean to say that out loud. But too late to cover it up, so I just went with it.

He looked at me shocked. "Really?"

I shrugged. "Maybe if we were alone," I said suggestively. I couldn't believe how forward I was being. I wasn't usually like that, especially when it came to hot guys, but I convinced myself that this was my moment. After the trip was over I needed to make a decision about Ethan and deal with the consequences; I needed to either recommit and move to the next step, or move on and break ties with him. It was a hard decision.

Mason leaned down and kissed me softly on the lips…. and then there it was again…. motion sickness. 'What was wrong with me? I usually don't get sick this easily.' I thought to myself as I pulled away from him just in time to vomit over the side of the boat.

"Whoa, I didn't know you would be that disgusted by kissing me," Mason joked. "You're really going to have to go back to the bathroom and wash your mouth out before we kiss anymore… and I definitely don't want my cock smelling like vomit so just come find me when you've cleaned yourself up."

I felt terrible literally. My entire body was trembling from the sudden nausea, and all that jerk could do was think about his cock and make jokes? Fucking prick. No way was I coming back to him. He could find someone else to do his dirty bidding. I could not believe what I was about to do. I thanked my lucky stars for motion sickness. I must be drunker than what I thought I was if I was going to sleep with this asshole.

"You know what? Screw you asshole." I said, picking up his drink and throwing it in his face.

"Bitch." I heard him whisper as I walked away from him.

Just as I was making my way towards the rest room once again to rinse out my mouth for the second time tonight, I heard loud sirens coming from somewhere.

"Everyone make their way to the front of the boat! I repeat, everyone make their way to the front of the boat!"

I looked over and saw a police boat shining its light on us. Everyone started to shuffle. I was being pushed backwards. Everyone made their way to the side of the boat and was dropping their pot into the water.

A group of guys were pushing their way from the front and knocked into me. I could feel my head starting to spin and suddenly, the next thing I knew, I was falling into the deep black water.

It was cold. I made it back to the surface and started treading water.

"Help!" I screamed. "Someone, help!"

I saw a figure jump over the end of the boat and dive into the water. When they made it back to the surface they swam over to me.

"Christine!" They said. "Are you okay?"

"Erik?" I asked. I didn't even know he was at the party. 'What was he doing at a party?' I questioned myself.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I was pushed, what do you think I'm doing?"

He started pulling me away from the boat. There was a small dingy attached by a line.

"Climb on!" Erik called.

He pulled himself over and then helped me. We could hear the police ordering for the boat to be brought back to the shore. They were saying how there was a big storm coming.

We suddenly heard a loud snap from the rope that was attached to the ship.

Erik leaned over the front of the dingy and tried to reach for the rope but all he grasped was the air.

"Sorry about that. But at least we can still follow the boat back when they get a little more ahead. I don't want to get into any trouble. And I'm sure you don't want to either?"

We watched as the boat's engine started and began its way back, the police leading the way. Erik sat down and watched them slowly disappear.

"Okay," I said, turning to Erik. "Start the motor; they're going to get too far ahead."

Erik rolled his eyes as he pulled the tarp off the end of the dingy. He sunk to a crouching position and started to laugh.

"What's so funny?" I asked. He sat back and shook his head.

"There's no motor." I could feel my face fall in shock.

"What?!" I screamed. "Oh my God! Look at how far they are! They'll never hear us!"

"Just calm down. We can try paddling back." He dug around and only found one.

"This is unbelievable."

"Sorry, look just calm do- Get under the tarp!" Erik screamed.

"What are you-"

He pulled down on my hand and put the tarp on top of us. We laid down in the dingy as water hit the tarp. We could feel the waves getting bigger and pushing us around.

We were going to die.

My head was spinning and I remembered falling and someone saving me. The next thing I knew, I was waking up on a dingy with the bright sun beating down on my face, and the boat was nowhere in sight.

I had to be dreaming. It was just a terrible nightmare and I'd wake back up in the hotel room… only it didn't feel like a dream.

"Don't sit up too fast, you might start throwing up again," an unfamiliar voice said. My vision was blurry, but I tried to focus my eyes and see who was there with me…. Yep, it was definitely a nightmare.

"Wha…what's going on, what happened?" I asked groggily.

"Don't you remember being at the party on the boat?" Erik asked with concern.

Bits and pieces were coming back to me slowly. But it was still kinda fuzzy.

"Yeah kinda of." I replied back.

"Well the cops showed up at the party and I saw a couple of guys push into you. That's when you fell out of the boat, and I jumped in and saved you." Erik the Geek Iofiel explained calmly.

"I fell out of the boat?" I said incredulously. Now the pieces were starting to add up. I remembered being at the party and falling overboard. I remembered everything and I could feel a nasty hangover take over my senses. I lay back down and closed my eyes to block out the sunlight. The rocking motion from the dingy was not helping and I felt bile rise up in my throat. I leaned over the edge of the little boat and lost what was left of my dinner from the night before. I made a promise to myself that as soon as we were rescued that I would never drink again for the rest of my life. I lay back down and closed my eyes to try to get some more sleep.

I woke up a few hours later to the sound of someone singing. It was so beautiful and I did not want it to stop. But as soon as I opened my eyes, I quickly changed my mind as the spinning returned.

"Careful now don't try to sit up to fast." Erik warned me.

I took my time sitting up and after the initial dizziness wore off I opened my eyes. To find Erik staring at me.

"What?" I asked, not meaning it to come out rudely as it did.

"Nothing. I'm just concerned, that's all." Erik replied back hesitantly.

"We should have followed the boat when we had a chance. Now I'm stuck in the middle of the ocean."

"I see now my mistakes and given the chance to do it over again I'm sure I would have been more successful."

"What? Who are you; what kind of person talks like that?" I asked frustrated.

"Sorry, I don't have very many friends that are my own age, so I don't really know how to talk," he said while pushing his glasses up.

"Oh my god, I'm going to die," I whined to myself.

"The probability is forty-sixty right now, but with each hour that passes our chances of survival goes down," he said casually.

"No, someone will find us. I'm sure they know we're missing by now and they've already called in the coast guard. We just have to sit back and wait. A boat, or a helicopter; someone will come."

We waited…and waited….and waited some more.

"It's been hours." I said. "They'll find us soon."

Erik was lying down. He had his arm over his eyes, shielding him from the sun. We had been floating for at least five hours. We were in the middle of nowhere. There was no island or other boats on the water. It was just us. Erik and I.

Then I remembered that I had my messenger bag with me when I fell. Lucky for me I never left home without it. It had my whole world in it. I dug in my bag and found my water.

"Do you want some?" I asked Erik. He sat up and took a drink. Then he started to laugh. "What's so funny?"

"You actually brought water to a party?" He laughed again.

"I didn't want to get dehydrated." I said in my defense. "Dehydration is what gives you hangovers."

"Weird." Erik said, handing me back the water. "I thought that was the drink you had last night."

"Well last night was a rough night for me." I said raising my voice a little. "I needed something a little stronger than water. And for your information I forgot I even brought it with me."

"Just calm down," he said softly. "If you get yourself worked up you'll just waste more energy."

"Calm down? We're in the middle -"

"Yeah, and we're never going to get home if you keep freaking out like that!" he shouted at me. I had hardly ever heard him speak louder than a mumble before, so his outburst was more than unexpected.

I put the water back in my bag and started to look around. The dingy didn't have much. There was our one paddle, a life jacket, and a box. I sighed and dipped my hands in the water, splashing my hot face. I used my shirt to dry myself.

When the sun set with no sign of help, I started to panic again. "What are we going to do? We can't stay on this thing forever. We're almost out of water. There is no sign of rescue."

"Please just try to calm down," he said softly. "We'll figure something out."

"Calm down? How can you be calm in situation like this?"

"I'm not; I just know that things could be a lot worse than it is." He said releasing a sigh. Then he started to rub his temples.

We didn't speak for the rest of the night; I just scooted down in the dingy and tried to sleep. The fact that the small raft made it impossible to stretch or lay anywhere that I wasn't touching Erik was disturbing, but after a few hours I just lost the energy to care.

By the second day on the little boat. I was starting to get delirious. The day started out just like the day before. I woke up and looked around but saw nothing but open ocean. I sighed and dipped my hands in the water yet again, splashing my hot face. Trying to find any way to keep cool. I used my shirt to dry myself. But when I opened my eyes I knew that the sun and ocean had to be playing tricks on my mind, because I could have sworn I saw land.

I thought I felt my heart pounding. I started hitting Erik's leg. He was lying down with his arm draped over his face, trying his best to block out the sun.

"What?" He asked, sitting up. He looked over to where I was staring.

Land. We found land.

"Grab the paddle, let's go!" I started screaming.

"Whoa," He said. "Do you see how far that is?"

"Then give me the paddle." I said, reaching over him for it. He lightly pushed me away and took the paddle in his hands.

"I'll do it." I sighed. He leaned over the side as we started our way towards the island.

We were saved.

**A/N: So now comes the fun stuff. I wonder what island life will like for our two favorite characters. Like it hate it let me know. Please R&R.**


	3. Chapter 3- The Beginning of Island Life

**A/N: First off I just want to say sorry for not updating sooner. My youngest son's birthday was yesterday he turned four. I just could not seem to find time to post this sooner. But I hope that you all will forgive me. Second let me say a big thank you to all you wonderful people reading, following, ****favoring****, and reviewing. I can't say how much it means to me knowing that my story is being read and enjoyed by so many people. Thank you again to PartyPenguina3 for being the best beta in the whole wide world. I don't know what I would do without her:) Third I know some of you are questioned through your reviews wondering if my Erik is deformed, or is he just nerdy? Erik is very much deformed in this story in chapter one I described him as wearing a mask. I'm sorry for not making that more clear and for confusing you all. I will touch base more on Erik's mask in chapter five which I'm in the process of writing right now. So without further a due I give you the latest chapter of Phantom's Lagoon:)**

**Disclaimer: Sorry don't own POTO or BL:( they belong to their rightful owners. I just like to borrow them for my enjoyment and yours. Please don't sue!**

Chapter Three- The Beginning of Island Life

One paddle hardly made us go any faster than what we were already going before. But I didn't care and told Erik to row faster anyways. He was probably ready to toss me out, but I could give a rats right at this moment. I could almost taste solid ground; it was slowly getting closer. I honestly thought that there was a chance that I might never know what it felt like to walk on solid ground again. But now I could see it and I wanted nothing more than to get there. The island was further than what I anticipated, and the waves were beginning to pick up the closer we got to the island. It seemed every time we managed to get close to the island a swell would start up and push us right back out to sea, making us start from the beginning. My own excitement got the better of me when I could clearly make out almost every detail about the island, and my hand went into the water to help paddle. I could feel Erik's excitement too as he paddled harder. I went from side to side, paddling just as hard. The rocks surrounding the island turned us into a ball in a pinball machine. The waves aided in knocking us into rock after rock, but thankfully this time it only propelled us forward. It had taken us the better part of an hour to paddle to the island. One big wave came up from behind us. "Erik!" I yelled, pulling him back so he didn't go flying off when it hit us. It pushed us forward enough to be able to push the paddle into the sand and pull ourselves forward that way. I jumped back to using my hands as a paddle as we desperately pulled ourselves forward despite the current that was trying to pull us back. I was starting to get frustrated and by the time we made it close to the shore, I could hardly breathe. My body felt limp and my lungs ached as I panted for air.

"We made it!" I exclaimed trying to catch my breath.

Just then a huge wave crashed the dingy into the rocks. Erik jumped out and pulled it closer to the shore. I hopped out on the other side and helped.

We managed to bring it to the sand. Right as it was far enough away that the ocean wouldn't carry it with the current, we both collapsed into the sand.

I fell to my hands and knees. I almost wanted to cry. I'd never been so relieved to be on dry land.

"You okay?" came Erik's voice from just a few feet away.

I looked up and swallowed. "Yeah." My breathing was ragged, my heart beating so fast I thought it might just beat right out of my chest. "You?"

He rolled over and looked at the island in front of us, at the thick jungle of trees.

"Yeah. Think so."

"OK, that's good to hear." My body ached all over and my head started to pound. I lay down in the sand just to rest for a little bit, and then I passed out again...

I woke up to something wet on my sandpaper dry lips and I automatically grabbed onto whatever it was and drank it ravenously.

"Slow down, you're going to make yourself sick," I heard Erik's voice say, but I couldn't see him. My eyes hurt - well everything hurt, and the only relief came from the cool liquid streaming down my throat. When the liquid flow stopped, I looked around for more, but there wasn't any.

"It's gone, you drank it dry," Erik said.

"Where did you get that? What was it?" I asked, still having a hard time speaking.

"Liana," he said casually. "Or better known as 'water vine' to the less knowledgeable. They grow in tropical areas and apparently on uninhabited Caribbean islands," he explained.

"Are there more?" I asked, not giving a crap as to what it was specifically. Only someone like Erik Iofiel would care about scientific names during a time like that.

"Yeah, I'll go get some," he said before running off.

I had no idea how long he was gone for, but even with just that small amount of sustenance, I felt strong enough to sit up and look around. The sand was soft and white. I felt like I was sitting down on a mattress. It was beautiful and the water was clear. There was a long stretch of beach and then a thick green forest about 20 meters from the water.

It was hot out, at least 40 degrees. Here I thought I was smart for wearing jeans and a long sleeve lacy black cover top on the boat. I was only smart enough to wear my bathing suit underneath. Erik must have been dying too. He was wearing beige cargo pants and a blue t-shirt under a light blue button up shirt. Now that I thought about it, this was the first time I saw Erik wearing something other than black.

Where the hell were we?

I scanned the horizon before me, and there was just nothing but open ocean.

When Erik finally returned with another water-thingy, I drank it quickly and discarded the vine. "Where are we?" I asked.

"Don't know, but from what I can guess, we're somewhere in the Caribbean Sea." Erik said, scanning the ocean for any sign of life.

"So, what now?" I asked after a few minutes of indignant silence.

"We need to check the island for any sign of life."

After about fifteen minutes of sitting down, I got to my feet and fixed my bag on my shoulder.

"Where are you going?" Erik asked. I removed my shoes and put my hair up in a messy bun.

"I'm going to see if there is anyone or anything here. Just like you said we needed to do."

"Wait!" Erik called.

He went to the dingy and pulled it up to where the forest line was. He looked into the box. He pulled out something. He threw the box back into the dingy and ran to catch up with me.

"What did you take?" I asked.

Erik raised his hand. He had a flare gun and two bullets.

"Really? Who's that for?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Shoot the bad guys?"

"Bad guys...What bad guys?" I asked generally interested.

"Look Christine, I hate to break it to you, but we're on an island, as to whether there's anyone else here I can't say, but I'm not taking any chances."

"What are you talking about?"

He shook his head, "We got to be careful that's all. Rather safe rather than sorry later."

"But again you did not answer my question. What are you talking about?" I asked,

getting curious.

"Stop and think for a moment, Christine, where are we?" He said motioning with his hands around us.

I looked at him with a puzzled expression, "On an island in the Caribbean, why?"

Sighing, he replied, "What two groups are found quite often in the Caribbean?"

Still a bit puzzled, I said, "Tourists?"

"Sorry Christine, but I was thinking more along the lines of modern day pirates, and drug runners. While you and the others were partying, I was talking to an old fisherman, about fishing, he also told me this whole area is filled with local pirate gangs who often times work with the drug dealers, when they're not out looting yachts sailing through the area. Like I said, if we run into anybody, I just want to be prepared. Don't worry, we'll get off this island; we're in the Caribbean after all, this isn't the sixteen hundreds when there weren't any other populated islands around. Now shall we? He said as he put the flare gun in his pocket and indicated for me to begin walking.

We started walking up the beach. We tried staying near the forest line, the most shade we could get and to make sure that we were truly alone. I believed Erik when he said that the area we were located in had rogue pirates. We did not want to take any chance and have something bad happen to one of us.

After walking on the beach for what seemed like an hour we decided to head back. There wasn't anything on the beach -or any sign of life anywhere for that matter. It looked like we were in the clear for right now but we still had to keep our guard up. Once we made it back to the dingy we decided to take a little break to rest our legs.

"What should we do now?" I asked, taking a seat in the sand.

"Well now, we need to find some real water, and maybe some fruit or something. Then we should try to make a shelter and start a fire for the night."

"Obviously, but how are we supposed to do any of that?" I didn't mean to be rude, but it had to be the worst few days of my life and I was scared to death of never going home. But then I thought about my parents: when they read about a girl who went missing a couple years prior in the paper, my parents made a comment about how they would never stop looking if that were me. Help was coming, I had to believe that.

"I have this Swiss Army knife and it has a flint on it," Erik said unexpectedly while pulling the knife out of his pocket to show me.

"You have a pocket knife?" I asked incredulously.

"It's a Swiss Army knife, but yeah. Why do you look so shocked?" he asked.

"Because pocket knives are for guys like Danny Zuko, not for guys who look like they would accidentally cut their fingers off from such a thing."

"My dad gave it to me, OK," he said bitterly.

"Oh, I get it – Your dad wished he had a more athletic son," I said harshly. I meant it as a joke, but it came out sounding a little cruel.

"My dad died when I was ten," he said quietly before getting up and walking inland.

Crap.

I felt awful for my comment, but I couldn't bring myself to apologize. I just followed him quietly into the trees hoping to stumble upon a fresh water spring or stream. It was pretty thick, which made it harder to move around inside. There were wild flowers growing the farther we walked into the forest. They were all so pretty.

Erik was walking in front, leading the way. He turned around every so often and checked to make sure I was alright. After about twenty minutes of walking, my feet were starting to kill me.

"Erik, I have to stop!" I called to him.

He didn't turn back to me; he just stopped walking and leaned against a tree to wait until I was ready to continue. After about a five minute break I was ready to continue and told Erik as much. He started to walk again turning every once and a while to check to make sure I was still following him. We walked in silence and my stomach started to growl, reminding me that I had not eaten anything since leaving for the party. I was starving and I needed to eat something if I was even going to attempt to go any further. Then I noticed something.

"Hey Erik!" I called. "Look!"

The berries were absolutely beautiful and I picked a berry off the small bush and went to pop it in my mouth. Erik came up and knocked it away from my mouth.

"Whoa, whoa!" He said. I eyed him suspiciously. "Hold on," he said before I had a chance to eat another one.

"What?" I asked irritated.

"I'm trying to remember the guide for berries."

"What guide?" I asked confused. "Berries are fruit."

"Yeah, and like mushrooms and flowers, some are poisonous," he told me. He stood there and scratched his head while he thought about it. "White and yellow kill a fellow, purple and blue good for you," he said to himself.

"Where did you hear that?"

"Boy scouts 101."

Why was I not surprised he was a boy scout; all nerds usually were. "You're a little weird, you know that?" I said.

"Been called worse."

I felt my heart constrict and squeeze because it was me and some of friends that did it. "So, what about red ones?" I asked, because that was the color of berries we had in front of us.

"Red can be poisonous or safe to eat. It depends on what plant they are growing on."

"Great, so which are these?"

"Um... These look like Pyracantha berries but I'm not 100% sure."

"What?" I asked confused.

"Pyracantha berries -or better known as Fire Thorn because the thorns can cause an irritating rash- are an evergreen shrub with orange-red and yellow berries which grow in clusters; Pyracantha berries are not considered poisonous unless large amounts are eaten; some sources even report them to be edible. But like I said, don't quote me." He said studying the berries.

"Repeat that again please in English."

"These berries are eatable. But don't eat too many. Like I said, they look like Pyracantha berries, but I could be wrong."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"I'm almost sure of it. Let me think."

"Almost?"

"Eighty five percent sure."

"Well, those odds aren't good enough for me," I said feeling hopeless.

But then, without warning, he yanked a berry off the bush and popped it in his mouth.

"Oh my god, what are you doing?" I asked in a panic. I may have been annoyed with him, but I definitely didn't want him to die leaving me stuck there alone.

He put up his finger to hush me while he chewed, and then he swallowed hard and waited.

"Well?" I asked anxiously.

He shrugged. "Sour, but not bad. They're safe, start eating them."

"I think I'll just pick some and keep them for later," I told him.

"You don't trust me, do you?"

"I just don't want to get sick again," I said honestly.

"Fine, it's probably a good idea to take some with us anyway just in case we don't find anything else to eat for awhile."

We each took a big leaf from the foliage and filled it with as many berries as we could. I put the leaf in my bag and then we continued to search for water. The terrain was hard to walk through and we were both beyond exhausted, but we persevered because we had no choice: we needed water.

"What are we going to do if we can't find any water?" I asked him as he was wrestling with another water vine.

"There has to be some water; all islands have streams full of rain water that run down from the highest point to the ocean. And if we can't find any, then we'll just have to stick to these vines for now and hope it rains soon."

"Um, no, I don't hope it rains soon," I said sourly. "What I hope is that a helicopter flies above us and we get rescued soon. It can rain when we're safely inside a hotel or something."

"The probability of getting rescued today is -"

"I don't care what the PROBABILITY IS!" I shouted at him, completely irritated by all his probability and scientific talk.

"OK, fine, let's just not speak while we look," he mumbled.

We had walked for ages. We stopped and checked to see if my phone had any reception every once in a while. It never did. Erik's phone had gotten water damage when we were still on the dingy. My battery only had 20% left.

But after another couple hours of searching passed and we still didn't find anything, I decided we had enough. "Erik, let's just go back to the beach. A ship could be passing and we would have no way of seeing it from here."

"Yeah, and it's going to be getting dark soon," he agreed, taking me aback. I didn't even notice the changing light, and regardless of what he had said, I still wasn't considering the prospect of spending the night on that dreadful island. But it seemed inevitable at that point, so I decided to look on the bright side - at least we were on dry land and not stuck in the dingy.

We looked around to head back, but suddenly we were completely lost. "It all looks the same, which way do we go?" I asked in a panic.

"This way," he said, uncertain. We continued to walk, and just as the sun sank below the horizon, we found the beach -except it wasn't the same beach we started out on.

"What difference does it make?" he said, sensing my aggravation.

"It makes a difference because we washed up on that beach, and that is where we left the dingy which means if people are looking for us, that's probably where they'd look!"

"Well, we can go back that way tomorrow. As of right now, we need to make a fire."

We didn't have time to build a shelter for the night, but it was warm enough so we just lay out under the stars and took turns keeping the fire going. I was desperate for food by then and since Erik had yet to get sick, I figured the berries were OK to eat. But that just made me even hungrier, so I fell asleep with my head in the sand to the sound of crashing waves and the constant rumbling of my stomach.

**A/N: *******WARNING: I am in no way an expert on berries. Please don't take any of this chapter as fact because that's simply not the case. If you have questions on poisonous plants/berries, please ask an expert!** I did research to the best of my abilities and the Pyracantha berries are real berries. Like it hate it let me know. Please R&R.


	4. Chapter 4- Finding Water

**A/N: First off I just want to say sorry for not updating sooner. I just hate the first week of school. I just could not seem to find time to post this sooner. But I hope that you all will forgive me. Second let me say a big thank you to all you wonderful people reading, following, favoring, and reviewing. I can't say how much it means to me knowing that my story is being read and enjoyed by so many people. Thank you again to PartyPenguina3 for being the best beta in the whole wide world. I don't know what I would do without her:) Erik plushie goes to her for all her hard work. Third I just want to remind you all that I have a flikr account with all my photo manipulation I did for this story and I update that as the story progresses. The link is in my profile page please check it out. I also posted pictures of the cast as well on there so you know who is playing who in this story. With that being said without further a due I give you the latest chapter of Phantom's Lagoon:)**

**Disclaimer: Sorry don't own POTO or BL:( they belong to their rightful owners. I just like to borrow them for my enjoyment and yours. Please don't sue!**

Chapter Four- Finding Water and Exploring the Island

"Christine, wake up," Erik said while shaking me gently.

"What?" I asked groggily before opening my eyes. It was another new day and I felt weaker than ever. We really needed to find something better to eat than possibly poisonous berries.

"I was walking into the forest to pee, and I found it," he said excitedly.

"A hotel?" I said like a moron. He looked at me like the idiot I was, before shaking his head. "Water, fresh clean water. Come on!" He pulled me up and we moved faster than either of us had moved since first arriving there. We broke through two small overgrown trees. Erik snapped the branches right off so I could walk through. I could hear it before I saw it: rushing water. We rounded a bend in the trees and there it was, a beautiful waterfall rushing into a crystal clear lagoon.

"Wow." He said, stopping suddenly.

I walked up beside him and had my breath taken away. It was amazing. There was a large waterfall with a small cave behind it. The water was crystal blue. The water was so blue that everything else associated with the word seemed pale by comparison. It was surrounded by beautiful pink flowers that danced up the sides of the trees that framed it like a fence that had been grown straight from the ground. It looked like something you'd only see in a dream. My heart hammered as I took in the beauty of it and fought a wild feeling that had me wanting to swim underneath the spray of the waterfall. It was a lagoon. It was beautiful.

"This is amazing." I whispered. Erik turned to me and smiled. "I don't know about you, but I'm parched." He said.

"How do you know it's clean? Like, aren't there parasites in places like this?" I questioned.

He shrugged and pushed up his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "It's not stagnant. See, the water flows out that way. We can't be sure, but I'm willing to give it a try," He said.

I knew we were taking a chance drinking this water but it was better than trying to drink sea water. That and the fact we had no other choice in the matter. I reached into my bag and pulled out the two empty water bottles from my bag. "So," I said as I bent down and filled the water bottles in a running stream just to the side of the lagoon. "Do you know which college you want to apply to when we graduate?" I asked making small talk anything to take my mind off of our situation.

Erik laughed. "No not really. I'm still undecided. We still have plenty of time too think about that. But I heard Cornell had a great architecture program." He said looking at me. I focused on filling the water bottles. "I'm guessing you're planning for...NYC?"

I snorted. "Not even close."

Erik smiled. "Harvard?"

"Closer I suppose." I shook my head and gave in. "Princeton." I said getting to my feet and capping one water bottle and putting it back into my bag. I handed the other one to Erik. "Here, you look like you could use a drink."

"Thanks. So what made you decide upon going to Princeton?" He asked, taking a sip from the water bottle and then handing it back to me.

"Come on; let's go check on the dingy." I said taking a sip of water wanting to change the subject. "So which way do you think we should go?" I asked, putting the water bottle back into my bag.

"I think we came from this direction." He said, pointing in the direction we should go.

I turned away from the lagoon and started walking away.

"I can't wait to get off this stinking island." I said. "As soon as we get to the dingy, I suggest we take off immediately- Ahhh!" I screamed.

Erik quickly came to my side. He looked down and saw a weird insect. It had at least 1000 mini legs and was an ugly orange color.

"You're scared of a little bug?" Laughed Erik. I pushed past him.

"I don't like the outdoors, okay?" I sighed. "Can we just hurry and find dingy? Everyone is probably worried sick about us."

"Yeah, I know; I want to get off this island just as much as you do." He said. "I have family just like you out there worried about me too. My mom especially must be worried sick." Erik said sarcastically. "But I don't think a hasty retreat will be any better than staying on this island."

I stopped and turned to him. "What makes you say that? Don't you want to get off this island?" I asked.

"Of course I do, but I think it's best if we stay here until rescue comes." He said, pushing by me and taking the lead.

I raised my eyebrow and stayed close behind him.

XXXX

"So, you never told me why Princeton." Erik said, walking slower ahead of me.

I looked at him and shrugged. "I don't know. I... It's Ivy League. It's just... where we've always talked about me going."

Erik stopped and turned around to look at me. "We've?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

Something about the way he said it made me feel like I needed to defend myself.

"I meant I."

He looked at me for a minute while something seemed to dawn on me. "It's weird, right? It's where I've always wanted to go... where I was supposed to go. I don't think I ever even questioned it." I pushed past him and took the lead.

He caught up with me and we walked side by side. He seemed to have let it go.

We had walked for what felt like ages. We stopped and checked to see if my phone had any reception every once in a while. It never did. My battery only had 10% left.

Then, through the trees, I saw white and blue. We walked towards it and were taken back to the beach where we started from. Just seeing the tiny patch of sand and beach brought me back to the feeling I'd gotten when we had first landed on solid ground. I felt like I'd finally been saved. We were going to find the hotel and I was going to be fine.

Seeing it again brought the very opposite feeling. Erik turned and put his hands on the back of his neck. I stared into the ocean. There was nothing around us. Nothing but water.

"Where's the dingy?" Erik's voice sounded panicked and I looked over at him as he ran forward.

"What do you mean?" I asked, my eyebrows pulling together as my eyes searched the beach. I had been too preoccupied with myself to notice what was missing.

The dingy was gone. The tide must have risen and dragged the boat away with the angry waves.

The only way to get off the island was gone.

XXXX

The wind blew my hair back around my face, whipping at my clothes. I ran my hand through my hair, desperately looking out at the ocean as Erik spotted a floating life jacket being tossed around by the waves. He sloshed through the water, grabbing at it. His eyes immediately searched the water. The dingy couldn't be far if the life jacket was still around, right?

But it had all but disappeared.

I felt sick. All the color rushed from my face as it hit me over and over like the waves pounded against the shore: we were stuck out here.

My illogical mind told me that maybe we could build a raft. But we'd hardly made it the first night on the dingy with the storm and the waves. We'd surely be dead if we thought we could float until we found life on a bunch of sticks tied together with vines.

Hot tears welled in my eyes and I fell to the sand beneath me. Visions of my mother hugging me goodbye, holding on tight as if she knew exactly what was going to happen plagued my mind. I thought about my dad leaning against my door frame, joking about how they'd miss me too much when I went on this trip.

This was it, wasn't it?

Those goodbyes at the bus... that was it. That was my last chance. Their last chance.

Erik didn't comfort me as I slid to the ground and cried. He seemed to be lost in his own little world, his slacks soaked to the knee, as he leaned against the rocks bordering the water.

We were both grieving. And we were completely alone.

"We're all alone, aren't we?" I whispered. Erik looked up at me through his thick eyelashes.

"Yeah." He said softly. "I guess we are."

I leaned against a tree while Erik laid down, his head on a fallen tree trunk.

I went through my bag to check on what we had as far as supplies.

"What's with all the zip-locks?" He asked.

I looked up at him. "What?"

"You carry all your crap around in baggies?" He nodded his head towards my purse filled with zip-lock bags, keeping everything separated.

I furrowed my brows. It was a simple answer, I thought. I shrugged. "It keeps things from getting messy..."

He smiled. "How's that working out for ya?"

I was back on the defensive. "Yeah? Well at least my phone is dry."

He nodded. That wasn't exactly a point I knew he could argue with. Although it didn't do us much good if I couldn't get a signal. It was as good as waterlogged.

It was only a few moments later, that something hit me. "Oh! Wait a sec!" I eagerly reached for my bag as Erik continued to watch me. "What?" he questioned.

I came back out with a small bag of peanuts wrapped inside a zip-lock bag.

"Damn. You should be on that Price is Right show." His smile was one of approval. He bit his lip as he looked at me.

"I knew it was in here!" I quickly unzipped the baggie and pulled out the bag of peanuts. "I put it in here in case I got hungry when we were building." I dumped some in my hand and offered another small handful to Erik who thanked me. "And I think you meant Let's Make a Deal."

"Hm?" he questioned, his mouth full of peanuts. Then it hit him. "Oh, right. That show." He smiled at me and I smiled back and then dropped my gaze back to the peanuts in my hand.

We split up the rest of the bag and fell into silence for a little while. My gaze would flicker over to Erik every once in a while and I would wonder exactly what it was he was thinking about. But I figured he'd never tell me, anyway. He seemed kind of internal and I knew that it was the reason why everyone was so quick to cast him off as a loner. No one took the time to understand him.

"Come on, let's go exploring the island. We're doing no good sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves." He said, getting up and dusting off his pants.

"Are you sure it's safe?" I questioned. We have explored some of the island already but it was so large that we had yet to make a dent in it. Maybe there was still hope that the island had a hotel or people and we just had yet to run into them. I knew I was giving myself false hope but could not seem to stifle the small voice in the back of my head.

"Yeah I'm sure it's safe but make sure to stay close to me." He said extending his hand to help me up.

"OK, if you're sure." I said, taking his hand and standing up. I dusted the sand off my jeans. "Lead the way. Ooh wise Jedi master." I said, gesturing for him to start walking.

We laughed and then walked determinedly in the direction of the other side of the island where we were sure we would find everyone else. And I didn't even care at this point if we got in trouble. I just wanted to change my clothes, take a shower, brush my teeth, sleep in a comfortable bed...

"I don't know about you, but I could use a coffee. Like a mocha ice blend with an extra shot." He grabbed at a stray twig poking out at him and tore it off, breaking it into pieces as we walked. "Oh, man. How good would that be?"

Erik kept on walking and turned suddenly as I screamed. I was desperately kicking my foot out and away from me. A centipede had fallen on my foot and Erik started laughing. He clutched at his stomach as he laughed a hard bellied laugh at me and my ridiculous reaction to a tiny bug. "What was that?"

"I hate bugs," I snarled, "Or don't you remember." I said, walking around the bug in a distance that was completely unnecessary and trudged along. Twice today a bug fell on me, of all the dumb luck I seemed to be having today.

"Oh, I remember all right, but it doesn't make it any less funny the second time around.

Well you've come to the right place then," he joked. I just rolled my eyes. He wouldn't have been laughing had it been his foot it landed on. I hoped one would. Then I'd see who would be laughing.

"Let's just find the hotel. We're supposed to finish working on the school today. Everyone is probably worried about us." Erik stopped walking and she walked past him. I had no idea why he wasn't in a hurry, but I'd go without him if I had to.

"Yes I know," he mumbled before following after me.

XXXX

I quickly regretted thinking that I would walk for miles so long as I could be back on the island. We had both been walking for what felt like hours and I felt on the verge of passing out. Or just throwing myself off the top of a really high cliff. "My feet are killing me," I complained.

"I freaking hate hiking," was Erik's response. I was glad that we were finally seeing something eye-to-eye for once because if he'd said something smart, I probably wouldn't have been able to stop myself from launching him off a very steep hill.

I wasn't exactly dressed for walking long distances. My sneakers were slip ons and they left my heel exposed. I sucked in a sharp breath and Erik stopped walking, turning around to look at me. "You want to wear my Chucks?" he offered.

I stopped short, taken aback by the offer. I smiled but shook my head. I'd tough it out. "That's okay." I paused, watching him as he turned and started walking again. "Thanks, though." I let my eyes wander around my surroundings, trying to get my mind off the fact that my feet were probably going to grow feet of their own and walk away if I kept abusing them.

My eyes fell on the path that Erik's feet were taking and he seemed just as content with the newly found silence as I was, so I didn't push it. The jungle brush seemed thicker here and I probably needed to focus on where I was putting my feet anyway.

I wasn't sure how long we walked for, but there seemed to be no sign of life anywhere. I wondered if maybe we were walking in the wrong direction, but I didn't say anything and neither did Erik. We'd reach something eventually. That much was true. It was an island, after all. There were probably people out looking for us, too. We were bound to cross paths sooner or later. Or a road.

"Hold on." I said coming to a stop in the middle of the path we were taking. "I just need to take a five minute break." I said; I was so thirsty I took one water bottle from my bag. I took a sip and it felt great so refreshing. "You want some?" I asked, holding out the water bottle towards Erik.

"Yeah, thanks." He said, reaching for the bottle and taking a sip. "So you okay?" He asked, looking at me with concern.

"Just peachy." I said, taking the water bottle from Erik and putting it back into my bag. "Alright, come on. We have to keep going. Let's just find the hotel." I said, starting to walk again.

"Why are you in such a hurry? We have all the time in the world." He said, taking a seat on a log and stretching out his legs.

I quickly realized that if we were going to get out of there any time soon, I would have to be the responsible one. "Because we really have to go. We're probably already in enough trouble as it is. You know they grade this trip. I cannot mess with my GPA."

"You're right." Erik said standing up from the log. "But I still don't think that anybody is on this island. So it should not matter either way." He said, starting to walk again.

It didn't take long until we were climbing on top of the waterfall and heading back towards civilization. We'd made almost an entire loop around the island. There was nowhere else it could be. He threw out his hand for me to grab when he knew that I was getting a little shaky. I knew he could hear it in the way my breath would hitch and his arm was already out and waiting when I needed it. "I can't wait until we get to a real bathroom." I sighed, thinking about all the things I would never take for granted again.

"I can't wait for a coffee."

I laughed because he probably hadn't stopped thinking about the coffee since he first said it. But we were close, so he'd get it soon. I was almost giddy with the thought.

I saw the edge of the cliff before we got there. We walked until we reached the end. The sun was going down and the waves were pounding threateningly against the cliff wall.

"Where are we?" I asked out loud, my voice already resigned.

"We've been walking for hours."

"We haven't seen a single road. Or person." I spoke slowly. Maybe if I didn't form the words, they wouldn't be true. I swallowed hard. I felt my heart sink as an empty feeling threatened to swallow me whole.

The wind whipped at our hair and clothes, taunting us. A silence settled down around the pair. "We'd better get back to the beach," he said.

It was then that I realized that we could really be lost. Our friends could sail for days and never find the island. There could be a million tiny, deserted islands just like the one we were standing on. The thought made me want to sink into the ground and disappear forever. I turned with Erik as we both headed back the way we came.

He was good enough with directions and to know the fastest way back. The sooner we were back on the beach, the better. Nightfall was probably safer for us on the beach than in the forest, anyway. Who knew what kind of creatures inhabited the otherwise lifeless island at night? That was something I didn't want to know the answer to.

"What if we have to spend the night on this island again?" I asked when I could finally find my words again.

"It's not like we're going to find a five star hotel around here," he joked weakly.

"We have to make a fire soon?" I knew that most nocturnal creatures were afraid of the bright light (or I at least hoped they were). If it was the only protection we would have for the night. I hated the idea of spending the night again but seeing as we did not have much of a choice in the matter. It would have to be done.

"I know. Former Boy Scout, remember?"

"So how did you start it yesterday?" I asked. I wasn't really paying attention when he started it.

He reached into his pocket. "Remember, I have this." He showcased a lighter that still managed to work somehow. I felt a tad bit better.

He was walking ahead. "Perfect!" I heard him call.

I sped up my movements as well, trying to see what he saw. "What is it?" Before he got a chance to answer, my eyes laid on a cave. "A cave?" I could follow his thought process immediately and I wanted no part in it. "I am not sleeping in a cave."

He looked at me, shaking his head. "It's the safest place to be! Dry if it rains, only one way in, protection from the elements..." He turned to look at me. "Hey, can I use your phone?"

I looked at him as if he'd lost all sense. Again. "I already told you I don't get signal out here. And I'm not really a cave kind of person."

He took the phone from my hands. "I just need the light." He shined it inside, hoping that there wasn't some kind of sleeping bear inside. "And maybe you're not, but we've evolved from cave people–" he was cut off instantly when an angry swarm of bats screeched and flew out of the cave, woken from the light. Bat after bat tore out and right towards us as I screamed and Erik tried his best to cover me from the angry animals.

"So I guess that's a no on the cave," I said, slightly out of breath when the swarm of bats finally came to a stop and he let me up. He looked at me and nodded. Obviously that was a no on the cave.

We started back to our spot on the beach, back to where we started. It didn't take long to get back. It was the same as we had left it.

I hated to admit that the sun setting against the beach was beautiful. Erik's body was outlined by the orange-pink glow as he stood watching as the sun buried itself beneath the horizon.

I'd somehow fooled myself into the thinking that we still had a chance. We could still be saved. I leaned against the trunk of a tree as I looked out past the water, past the sunset, past everything.

When I looked back at Erik, he was still staring intently at the setting sun and my heart picked up speed. "Do you see something?"

"No," he answered back, sober but lost in his head.

"Use the flare gun. You need at least two flares. I saw it in a book. The one where... the woman sails around the world with her cat? You're supposed to fire two flares. One to get their attention and one to locate you." I sprayed my skin with the bug spray I was happy to realize that I'd remembered to keep in my purse. I wasn't risking malaria. Then I'd really never get off the island.

"Who's they?" Erik asked, his back still turned facing the sun.

I looked up at him, tracing his back with my quizzical eyes. "The people who are going to come looking for us, I guess. Our families, the police, or whoever." I shrugged as if this was something he should have already thought of. Of course our parents wouldn't just sit back and say 'oh yeah, well I guess they're better off out there. What do you think about getting some ice cream on the way home?'.

Erik brought his hand to cover his eyes like a visor. His back went rigid as he looked out at the sun with more intensity. I didn't have to see his face to know that he was looking for something.

"Erik, what are you doing?" The last bits of the sun disappeared against the water and Erik kept looking out and I could feel his longing, the feeling off loss that he had missed something he was supposed to have seen. As he turned around, I sent him silent questions with my eyes, but he wasn't paying me any attention. "What was that about?"

He ignored me. Instead, he pointed at me with the life jacket just before he sat down opposite me. "Hey, can I borrow some of that bug stuff?"

I nodded, handing it over. "Thanks," he said. He reached over for the life jacket and handed it to her. "Want a pillow?"

I laughed. "Thanks. Five star."

He laughed once as he sprayed himself with the bug spray and we fell into silence again.

It was only a few moments later, that something hit me. "Oh! Wait a sec!" I eagerly reached for my bag as Erik continued to spray himself. "What?" he questioned.

I came back out with another small bag of peanuts wrapped inside a zip-lock bag.

"Damn. You really do come prepared. What else do you have in that magic bag of yours?" Erik said his smile was one of approval. He bit his lip as he looked at me. The smile on his face was nice. I was the reason he was in this mess, so I liked to see that he still had it in him. He looked really beautiful when he smiled.

"I knew it was in here!" I quickly unzipped the baggie and pulled out the bag of peanuts. "I always keep back ups in case I got hungry when we were building four days ago." I dumped some in my hand and offered another small handful to Erik who thanked me. "So." I said not really knowing what else to say.

"Hm?" he questioned, his mouth full of peanuts. He smiled at me and I smiled back and then dropped my gaze back to the peanuts in my hand.

We split up the rest of the bag and fell into silence for a little while. My gaze would flicker over to Erik every once in a while and I would wonder exactly what it was he was thinking about.

The last remnants of the daylight were just about to leave us in darkness, so the both of us went our opposite ways to find as much dry wood as we could. Erik stacked them in an arrangement that looked just like how they did it on the movies. Piled up into a nice cone. He flicked the lighter to life and I watched, completely enraptured in the movements of his hands as he coaxed a fire from the tiny flame.

I smiled as he shifted the sticks around almost professionally and the fire grew and I could feel the warmth against my skin. "You're good at that," I commented.

He sat down opposite me, leaning against another trunk. I watched him for a moment with my lips pursed. I couldn't keep it in anymore. "What do you think everybody is doing right now?"

He looked into the fire for a moment and then looked back at me. He shrugged. "Don't know?"

I narrowed my eyes and shook my head. "Oh. You know what's funny. I actually feel more free here than back home."

"Yeah I know what you mean." He laughed once and she studied him for a moment.

"So, oh wise Jedi master, you know what would be good right now?"

"What?" He asked shaking his head.

"S'mores."

He laughed again, but he didn't answer. He just turned back to the fire, poking at it with the stick he had in his hand. The fire grew slightly larger.

The crackling of a stick in the distance caught Christine's attention and my head turned in the direction of the sound. Erik seemed unaffected by it. I tried to glance into the darkness, but I couldn't see anything. "What do you think is out there? In the woods?"

He turned his head to follow my gaze and then his eyes landed on me. "We're going to be fine."

I hugged my knees to my chest and shook my head, looking down. "I know." I reached for my phone in a last ditch effort and checked it. I shook my head. "Still can't get a signal."

He reached over and took my phone from my hands. "Here," he said, leaning back against the trunk. I watched him quizzically and then heard music begin to play from the speakers.

I jumped up from my spot and snatched the phone from him, exiting out of the music. "What are you doing? You're going to waste the battery." I sat down beside him and hugged my arms around my body a little tighter.

"I was just going to listen to some music."

I ignored him, rubbing my hands vigorously over my legs to keep them warm. The temperature was continuing to fall and I had nothing but the clothes on my back to keep me warm.

Erik watched me shiver for a moment, and sat up. "Here," he said, taking off his button up shirt and handing it to me. "Take my shirt."

I watched him remove the button up shirt, leaving him in only a navy blue t-shirt. "Thank you." I pulled the fabric around my body as he lay down against the sand beside me.

I looked up at the small patch of sky I could see through the trees. I liked the stars. I always had. I wanted to point up at a constellation I knew and impress him, but I wasn't willing to open up that much. Not yet.

"Night," He said, turning his head to look into the fire.

"Night," I answered back, tugging his shirt around me tighter. It smelled like him. I realized right then and there that I really liked the smell. I was quiet for a moment. "They'll come for us," I said confidently. "I know they will."

He didn't answer. I sat, with my knees up against my chest in silence while Erik fell asleep. I heard another crackle in the distance and my head whipped around to look back into the darkness. "What was that?" I asked, even though I knew Erik was already sleeping.

I didn't hear the sound again, but my heart didn't seem to want to stop beating so hard against my chest. I took a deep breath and let it out, looking around at the woods that surrounded us. This was my life now.

**A/N: So what do you all think about how island life is treating our two favorite characters. Like it hate it let me know. Please R&R.**


	5. Chapter 5-I Have to Do What?

**A/N: First off I just want to say sorry for not updating sooner. My husband had a one week vacation he had to take from work. So for the last week I have been on vacation and loving it. But now that it is over I promise I will update this at least once a week it what I'm aiming for. But I hope that you all will forgive me. Second let me say a big thank you to all you wonderful people reading, following, favoring, and reviewing. I can't say how much it means to me knowing that my story is being read and enjoyed by so many people. Thank you again to PartyPenguina3 for being the best beta in the whole wide world. I don't know what I would do without her:) Erik plushie goes to her for all her hard work. Third I just want to remind you all that I have a flickr account with all my photo manipulation I did for this story and I update that as the story progresses. The link is in my profile page please check it out. I also posted pictures of the cast as well on there so you know who is playing who in this story. With that being said without further a due I give you the latest chapter of Phantom's Lagoon:)**

**Disclaimer: Sorry don't own POTO or BL:( they belong to their rightful owners. I just like to borrow them for my enjoyment and yours. Please don't sue!**

Chapter Five- I Have to Do What?

I could hear the sounds of waves washing up on the beach before I opened my eyes to the bright morning light. I blinked a few times, trying to get my eyes to adjust to the harsh change from the back of my dark lids to the bright sun. I rolled over and looked beside me, my hand resting on a very empty patch of sand. I looked down and saw a blue button up shirt draped over my legs. It was Erik's. I sat up, my eyes searching the beach for Erik. He must have just woken up early and... done some guy things or whatever. I refused to panic until I actually got up and tried to find him.

I folded his shirt and set it on the side on top of my bag. The sun was already beating down on the sand. There was a small breeze picking up. Judging by the position of the sun, it must have only been around 10 in the morning. The island was heating up, fast.

I stood up, brushing the sand from my body. I stumbled over the small rocks and branches on the beach as I walked the length, spotting him a few hundred yards away, scribbling something in the dirt with a stick. "So you're a morning person, huh?" I asked as I came up to him. I could see the beginnings of a very large 'SOS' in the sand. "What are you doing?"

He didn't look pleased with the way I greeted him. "I'm trying to save us and get us off this stupid island. And what was it you are doing? Sleeping?"

I looked out against the ocean, my sarcastic nature that so easily grated on his nerves was ready to come out to play. I shrugged. "Actually," I said. "I was thinking about going to get us some more water. I noticed that we are all out." I said putting my hands on my hips.

"Help should be here soon, it's been over 24 hours now. Everyone is probably on site as we speak." I said. "I don't think that we have to worry about spending another night here."

He rolled his eyes and turned back to the letters in the sand.

"Hey, where's my phone?" I questioned him hoping that he did not try to listen to more music. The last thing I wanted was to lose our only way to communicate to the outside world. Even though I wasn't getting a signal now didn't mean I won't get one later.

He looked up at me and shook his head. "Battery's dead. But it's right there." He said pointing to a leaf right by our make shift camp.

I walked back to camp and picked up my phone to see how much battery life I had left. I tried to turn on my phone. After the third try trying to get it to turn on I was pissed. "My phone is dead. Just like I told you it would be."

He groaned and held his hands up dropping the stick. "I turned the music off the second you snatched it from my hands. You can't blame this on me."

I ignored him. "We could use more water. I think I'll go get some now." I said turning away from him and walking towards my bag. I opened it and grabbed out the two empty water bottles and put my bag back down in the sand.

I turned one last time to watch Erik for a moment longer as he continued to finish writing his SOS. I then took a deep breath and turned back towards the forest and started walking towards the blue lagoon.

XXXX

I managed to find the lagoon again after thirty minutes of stumbling through the forest, the fresh mountain water falling down in a small stream on either side of the beautiful blue pool of water.

I held my empty water bottle over the small stream and waited as it filled up.

Off in the distance, I heard the snap of twigs again. My head snapped up and I looked around. Nothing but woods surrounded me. My eyes narrowed as I tried to catch movement, but I couldn't see anything. I sat up straight, capping my water bottle. I cast one look behind me before I hurried back to find Erik on the beach.

I found him sitting down in the sand looking out towards the ocean. Scanning the horizon and seeing nothing. He turned around as soon as he heard my approach. "So did you find the lagoon alright?" He said, trying not to laugh. "If you took any longer I was afraid I would have to send a search party to look for you."

"Ha, ha, real funny." I said walking towards my bag to put the bottles away. "I did not take that long, for your information." I said as I sat down in the sand next to him. I leaned against a tree while Erik lay down, his head on a fallen tree trunk.

"Oh my God!" I cheered. Erik looked up at me with confusion.

I started digging into my bag and pulled out a nutrition bar. I waved it in front of my face and opened it. I broke it into halves and gave Erik some.

"Thanks." He said, eating it in small bites. I did the same.

"How long do you think it will take for them to find us?" I asked. Erik kept looking over the water.

"Well," he said. "They have to wait at least 24 hours just to claim us missing."

"Well, we've been on this island for five days now."

"Wait how do you know how long we have been on this island?" He questioned combing his fingers through his hair.

"I have been keeping track by marking little ticks on a rock right by the forest line." I said pointing towards the rock. "But that's besides the point. The main point is we have been here for five days."

"Yeah, I know, but they might just think we ran away or something. It might be a while before they start looking over here."

"No hope?" I asked him, starting to feel a rise of panic in my stomach.

"Not that." He said, sitting up. "I'm just not going to give myself false hope of being rescued so soon."

I removed my cover top and folded it neatly and put it into my bag.

"I'm sure they'll find us by night fall." I said digging through my bag to find my sunscreen. I took it out and began to spray my self down. There was no way in hell I was risking getting a sun burn.

"You need to take a break. You need to learn how to relax. Do you want to go for a swim?" Erik asked ignoring my comment. He stood up and brushed the sand from his pants.

"How can I relax? We're on a deserted island! Are you really going for a swim?" I asked, spraying down my face and neck.

"Exactly! We're on a deserted island. As in... deserted. As is no one else. When was the last time that you just... relaxed? Do you not feel how hot out it is?" He said. "If you don't stay cool you're going to get heat stroke. You sure you don't wanna come?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "It's a little hard for me to relax. When I stop moving and I have time to think, I remember that I'm stuck on this damn island. And if I do it won't be because you mentioned it first." I said spraying my arms. "I was planning on going as soon as I made it back here." I stood up and began to try to spray my back.

"Well I don't care who said it first. Do you want to go or not?" He asked rolling his eyes.

"Maybe." I said trying to spray my back. I was not having much luck and I was starting to get frustrated.

"Do you want me to get your back?" He asked. Knowing that I was getting frustrated. I nodded slowly and gave him the sunscreen.

"Thank you." I whispered to him.

"No problem." He said as I turned around so Erik could spray my back with the sunscreen.

"Done." He said after a minute of spraying my back. I turned and took the can from him.

"Do you want some?" I asked feeling bad for the way I treated him. I really needed to work on acting nice to him.

Erik nodded his head. "Thanks." He said as he turned and put his arms to his side.

I began to spray down his arms and neck. Then he turned again and I did the same thing to his front. "Can you close your eyes? I don't want you to get sunscreen in your eyes." I said. Erik gave me a look that I could not understand but closed his eyes anyways. I began to spray his face making sure to be extra careful because of the mask.

"There, all done." I said putting the sunscreen back into my bag.

He took my hand and started walking towards the forest line. He could feel me hesitate. He turned back to look at me with a small smile on his face. "Trust me."

"Now, shall we?" He said, walking into the forest.

It seemed the island was getting smaller and smaller every time we made our way through it. The lagoon was still at least a twenty minute walk, surrounded by trees and dark caves, but the walk was always shorter as Erik led us through.

Erik let go of my hand and I was kinda missing the feeling of my hand in his. 'What's wrong with me? I'm not suppose to like being around him. It must be because I had no one else to talk to.' I fell into step behind Erik.

We rounded a bend in the trees and there it was, our beautiful blue lagoon. It looked the same as I left it. I walked up beside Erik and just stared at the waterfall. I turned to look at Erik he was looking at the lagoon with an expression of awe.

"Well, aren't you getting in?" Erik asked me before pulling off his shirt from his tense shoulders. He then took off his glasses and set them down on his shirt before wading in.

Erik was as pale as his hands, but in the warm lighting of the sun he didn't seem as ghostly as he normally did. He was more muscular than I had expected him to be. However, it was not his corded muscles that held my attention, but the light pink scar on his left arm. It started down on the inside of his elbow and ended a little below his shoulder. I focused on Erik. Taking in every detail. Trying to understand what happened to him to cause this damage. I let my eyes trail up and down his body. And suddenly, I felt something that's a mix of hurt and anger. I wish very badly to take away all his painful memories in Erik's virtually horror-filled life. But I knew I couldn't do anything to change the past; all I could do is try to make the future brighter for him. I let my eyes wander up to his face and wonder not for the first time about why he wore the white mask that covered the whole right side of his face. The mask on his face heightened my curiosity and I didn't know what the reason for it was. It was both frightening and fascinating to me at the same time. I just wanted to get closer and see the detail and texture of it, but I knew that Erik would not approve of that. It seemed to somehow stay there with nothing holding it on. What happened to Erik to cause him to get these scars? I questioned to myself. I felt bad for the way I treated him and wanted to change but I did not know how to go about the change. Erik's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Christine?" Erik said, looking a little uncomfortable at my sudden attention to his form, "Are you going to do it or do you need help?"

Christine's eyes went wide. "WHAT!" I gasped, and then suddenly felt like a fool. "OH, you mean getting in. Um…" I grew nervous. "Is it cold?" I asked.

"Yep," he replied. "And it feels really good!" He said, floating on top of the water relaxing, not really swimming, but I wanted to actually swim. So I kicked off my shoes and placed my bag next to my shoes. I couldn't have been happier in that moment that I wore a bathing suit. I figured it was a boat party, so why not. One of the best decisions I had made. I considered taking off my shirt to swim in my bikini, but that was way more intimate than I  
ever planned on being with Erik Iofiel, so I jumped in fully clothed.

And it felt amazing. The cold was a sharp contrast to the blistering heat of the midday, but it was a welcomed relief and allowed me to forget all my troubles for a short time. The water was fresh and clean as far as I could tell, so as we swam -well, I swam, he just seemed to float around - and it was as close to heaven on that godforsaken island as I was going to get.

"I think we should make camp close by," Erik said awhile later as we relaxed on the side with our feet still dangling in the water. "Ships can come from either side, so the beach here is as good as the other but it's much closer to the lagoon."

I nodded in agreement. "OK." He was right, but the truth was that I just really didn't want to walk all the way back to the other beach anyway.

We had stayed at the lagoon all day, and as twilight fell over us, the changing light made the lagoon a brilliant blue color. As much as I hated everything about being stuck there, I took a moment to actually enjoy the beautiful sight of it.

"Ready to go back to the beach?" Erik asked as he put his shirt back on.

"Yeah, I guess we should build a fire for the night," I said reluctantly, not wanting to leave the serenity of the lagoon.

We raced the darkness and gathered branches and twigs for the fire, which caught easy enough with his lighter, but then he did one of the most disgusting things I had ever witnessed.

"What are you doing?" I screeched.

"We need the protein," he explained as he pushed what looked like a rather large worm on a stick to roast on the fire. "Unless you have more food in that magic bag of yours." He said raising an eyebrow.

I just shook my head no. "That's what I thought. Now I just ate one raw but I figured you'd want yours cooked?" He asked starting to cook the worm.

"Uh, no. I am not eating that. I'll just stick to berries."

"You can't live on berries, especially after swimming most of the day. You need protein."

I shook my head. "You eat it if you're so hungry. Unlike you, I don't need to put so much meat on my bones. Berries are just fine. Thank you very much."

"Was that a skinny joke?" he asked offended.

"It wasn't a joke."

"You know what's so funny? People like you actually think that people like me don't know that we're too skinny. Do you really think that I'm unaware how disgusted people are by me? But thank you for reminding me yet again. As if we didn't have enough to deal with here."

Erik got up and walked back into the trees, leaving me alone by the fire and I felt like shit. I didn't mean to insult him again, but I guess I didn't try to not insult him either. Our classmates had been calling him 'bones' for as long as I could remember, and I never cared enough to think about how it bothered him. I always figured if he really minded being called names then he'd do something about it and put on some weight. But after seeing the look on his face just then, I realized no one should have to feel that so I decided to talk to him about it and apologize when he returned -except he didn't come back.

I spent the rest of the night alone. I curled up into a ball as small as I could and hid under a tree scared to death of anything and everything that made a noise in the darkness of night. I hadn't been on the island long enough to know what kind of animals or creatures resided there, and with my luck a leopard or something would choose my helpless solitude as its moment to strike.

"Stupid fucking Iofiel," I mumbled to myself as I tried to get comfortable in my huddled state. "I bet you wanted a leopard to attack me and that's why you left. Everyone out for themselves, huh? I get it." Even I knew I was being irrational, I couldn't snap out of it. I was scared and cold, and the fact that he just ditched me was really freaking me out, but when he didn't come back the next morning either, I really started to panic.

"ERIK!" I called into the forest. But there was no response. "Great, he fell and broke his neck or some wild animal ate him. Now I'm stuck here all alone, and I can't even remember the rhyme for safe berries."

It was safe to say I was feeling just a tad bit sorry for myself.

But the worst part was that he took his pocket knife and lighter with him and left me with no way to start a fire. I was seriously screwed, and on top of everything else, he was right, I was starving and the berries were definitely not cutting it anymore.

"What's the point really? I might as well just sit back and die." I said to myself.

"I can't believe I'm going to die as a pathetic virgin." And then I started bawling. I just let it all out and cried like I hadn't in years. It actually felt good to cry, and I wondered if I'd ever stop.

"Are you hurt?" Erik's voice said from behind me.

My head shot up and I looked at him. From my line of sight, the bright sun was directly behind his head making his face shadowed in a way that he didn't look real, but I knew instantly that I wasn't just imagining him. "You're alive!" I shouted, and then I stood and threw myself at him.

"Who... A uh," he said uncomfortably as I hugged him.

I pulled back. "That was weird, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, just a little," he said as he pulled off his glasses to clean them with his shirt before putting them back on.

"Oh, whatever. Where the hell have you been?" I asked with a mix of anger and relief. My desire to apologize to him before had melted away sometime during the night, and left me expecting him to apologize instead. What kind of jerk just walks away from the only other person marooned on an island? Before I left him alone I made sure to mark another tick on my make shift calendar. We were on day seven. One whole week on this stupid island. Well I was going to change that and increase our chances of rescue.

I walked back to our beach and wrote out a big SOS on the sand with rocks.' It was better than his. At least mine won't just wash away with the waves.' I thought to myself. Now that we had all our bases covered we were sure to get rescued. It took longer than I anticipated to get there so I ended up just camping there for the night

"I brought more berries," he said with a goofy apologetic grin, as if the berries would make up for him abandoning me.

"Don't ever just leave like that again! I was going out of my mind here. There were noises in the dark, and I think a leopard was stalking me, and -"

"There aren't any leopards here," he said with a laugh.

"There aren't?"

"Not in this region of the world," he said factually.

"Jaguars?"

"Closer. We were traveling south on the boat, but I doubt we went south enough for jaguars. Besides, I'm ninety eight percent sure there are no big mammals on this island."

"Why do you think that?"

"I haven't seen any droppings."

Ugh, why was he so gross? "So, we're safe from being eaten," I said, trying to be positive.

"I wouldn't say that," he replied casually. "Anacondas are pretty common on islands like this."

I squeezed my eyes shut tightly to try to eradicate the thought of man eating snakes out of my brain. "Can we just make a pact to stick together for our remaining time on this island? I was really worried when you didn't come back."

"You were worried about me, or worried about yourself being alone?" he asked evenly.

"Both."

"Sure," he said sarcastically as he walked past me to restart the fire.

"Look, we're not exactly friends here, but I still don't want you to die," I said honestly.

He stood and turned to face me. "Well, I'm definitely not the one you should be worrying about anyway, I'm actually getting protein. You, on the other hand, are at risk for starvation."

I bit my lower lip anxiously. "You're really eating worms?"

"They're not so bad."

I whined before holding out my hand towards him. "OK, give me one."

"I can cook it," he offered while gesturing towards our makeshift fire pit.

"Just give it to me before I freak myself out of it," I said in a rush.

I refused to look at it because I knew I'd never be able to go through with eating the thing if I saw it crawling around. But nothing could stop me from feeling it as he placed the cool, slimy insect in my hand.

"Don't think about it, just pop it in your mouth and chew," he encouraged.

I whined again and seriously thought about throwing the thing, but then I did as he instructed. I chewed quickly and tried to swallow it down without tasting, but I just couldn't get my mind out of it. "If you tell anyone about this, I'll kill you," I warned him as I fought the gagging reflex that was trying to overcome me.

"Right, and who would I tell? There's an iguana back there, maybe he'd be interested in your worm consumption." He joked trying not to laugh.

"You know what I mean: when we get back to the land of the living, you better not tell anyone about this. I still have a reputation to uphold you know."

"Do you really think people would judge you because you ate worms to survive?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes, all of my friends would freak, and there isn't a guy who'd want to kiss me knowing what I just did."

"Wow, great group of people you surround yourself with."

I glared at him spitefully for his comment, and felt my temper boil. This obnoxious skinny loner before me, whose hair was sticking out in all directions and his glasses where falling down his face, had the nerve to judge my friends?

"At least I have friends, and I definitely don't go around writing ridiculous love poems to people who are way out of my league!" I spat.

He nodded slowly, but had a defeated expression on his face as if I just kicked him when he was down. "You know, there's a reason why we're not friends, so let's just keep our conversation to survival purposes only," he said bluntly.

"That's probably for the best," I agreed. We only needed to survive together, being friendly was definitely unnecessary. Soon enough we'd be back in civilization and return to our normal lives; we'd never have to associate with each other again and could just forget we were ever stuck in that horrendous position of relying on each other for survival.

"Are there any more worms?" I asked reluctantly. The first worm I ate was disgusting, and yet, because I was starving, it was one of the best things I had ever eaten and I really wanted more.

He sighed. "Yeah, there's a ton. I just need to turn over some more rocks."

After eating a few more, we made our way back to the beach where we began collecting branches and such to try to make some kind of shelter, but of course, because of Erik's odd nature, he suddenly lost focus and began cutting wood instead of just collecting it.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"Do you want to keep eating worms for the rest of our time here?"

"You have a better idea?"

"I'm sure that reef out there has all kinds of fish, so I'm making a spear," he said unexpectedly.

I wanted to laugh at the ridiculous notion of a guy like him attempting to make a weapon, but I bit my tongue. If he wanted to waste his time whittling wood, that was his problem; I, on the other hand, was going to make a shelter, so I just shook my head and tried to ignore him.

**A/N: So what do you all think so far? I don't want to beg for reviews but it goes like this the more you guys review the faster I'll update this story. I guess it's a guilty thing, if I know people are reading this story, I'll update a lot faster. If it looks like nobody is reading my story than I'll update it a lot slower. So gets on hands and knees and begs for reviews. I cannot express enough how those things keep me going! Here I'll make a deal with all my wonderful readers. If I get at least five reviews I'll post chapter six by Thursday. See we can both get what we each want. It's a win-win for both of us. Anyways I have been blabbing enough. Like it hate it let me know. Please RI&R.**


	6. Chapter 6-Breaking the Ice

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait but I hope you could find it in your hearts to forgive me. With Halloween just around the corner and the holidays coming up it's getting hard for me to find some quiet time to just sit down and write. But know this I will never give up on this story and have already started writing chapter 10. But enough of that on the good news my eight year old son Josh told me he wanted to be the Erik for Halloween. That just melted my heart ain't that the cutest thing ever. Anyways enough of my blabbering I want to say big thank you to all you wonderful people reading, following, favoring, and reviewing. I can't say how much it means to me knowing that my story is being read and enjoyed by so many people. Thank you again to PartyPenguina3 for being the best beta in the whole wide world. I don't know what I would do without her:) Red roses and chocolate chip cookies go out to her. So without further a due I give you the latest chapter of Phantom's Lagoon:)**

**Disclaimer: Sorry don't own POTO or BL:( they belong to their rightful owners. I just like to borrow them for my enjoyment and yours. Please don't sue!**

Chapter Six-Breaking the Ice

I'd needed to get busy and find some supplies and gather them together to build a shelter. I looked back up at Erik to see that he was still whittling the stick and shook my head. If he did not think a shelter was important, then that was his problem but I knew that I did not want to spend another night without some type of roof over my head. So with that thought in my mind, I turned and headed towards the jungle to get to work.

I went searching a little ways in the jungle to find some branches. Thankfully, I found enough pieces which had already fallen down. I carried them back to our unofficial camp.

I needed a way to bind the branches together for our shelter, so I found some dead vines in the foliage of the forest, and luckily they came apart easily so I was able to shred them into thin strips. I started wrapping the strips around the branches, when - "Ouch!" I screeched as a large splinter jammed into my finger.

"What happened?" Erik asked.

"Nothing, I'm fine," I said quickly, not wanting to admit that I was failing miserably at making the shelter.

"And people say I'm weird," Erik mumbled under his breath while continuing to cut the wood he was holding.

The splinter hurt like hell and my hands were throbbing after all the shredding I was doing; I was beginning to get frustrated all this stress was starting to get to me. But I knew I could not give up I did not want Erik thinking of me as a quitter. I found my eyes trailing back up to Erik and found myself curiously watching him concentrate so intensely on the wood he was whittling. I had never seen someone work so hard for anything in my life, and his determination was absolutely fascinating to me. Where was his new found drive coming from? Perhaps he just really wanted more to eat than berries and worms. If he could make a spear, then I could make us a shelter. But I still could not take my eyes off of him. When he was finally confident it was sharp enough, he waded out to the reef in order to test it out.

But of course, the stick broke.

However, Erik didn't seem too upset by his lack of success like I had been; he just grabbed another stick and started whittling again. Six failed attempts later he was able to make one strong enough to actually stab a fish, but learning to be successful at it was a different story.

"You missed!" I shouted.

He looked back and glared at me for stating the obvious. "I'm just trying to figure it out," he said as he walked further out on the reef.

"Oh, get that one," I said, but he just ignored me.

When he missed again, he actually showed some real normal emotions and yelled out in frustration before throwing the spear towards the beach.

"Well, that's not very helpful," I said casually. "I guess it's worms and berries for dinner again tonight."

"Can you just shut up for five minutes!" he said, irritated. "At least I'm doing something. I don't see you still trying to make the shelter."

"Fine, sorry," I said, and took a few deep breaths to calm myself down, sucked it up, and went back to work building the shelter.

XXXX

I knew that Erik was watching me from the corner of his eye. I thought I heard him mutter under his breath. "That doesn't look right." But I could not be sure if he was talking about my shelter or his fishing skills. So I just ignored him and kept on binding the branches together. I tried to look confident in my abilities of building the shelter; although I knew I looked stumped about 89% of the time, I had no intention on giving up. I started to build between two trees.

Once I had most of the frame done I stepped back to look at my creation to see how much I still needed to get done. There was a small creak. The next thing I knew, all of my hard work crashed to the sand. I blinked a few times and took a deep breath to calm myself down. Nothing ever got done if you let your emotions get in the way of doing something. I knew I could do this and so I started to get back to work again on my second attempt at making a shelter. But after the fourth failed attempt of building the shelter I was singing a different tune.

My body hurt like hell and my hands were throbbing after all the shredding I was doing, so I got frustrated and gave up. If I had months with nothing else to do but bind branches together, I was sure I'd eventually get around to finishing it, but for the time being it was just too painful and time consuming, and I fully expected to get rescued sooner rather than later. It didn't really matter anyway; it was warm enough to just sleep out under the stars like we had been doing, so I figured it wasn't really all that important after all. Instead, I found myself just curiously watching Erik yet again.

"You missed again!" I shouted from my spot on the beach.

He stopped fishing for a minute and looked back at me with a face filled with contempt. "This is a lot harder than what they make it look like in the movies." He snapped as he walked further out on the reef.

"Well how long do you think it will take you to figure it out?" I asked, thinking he should've caught on by now.

"If you keep distracting me it will take me longer to catch on. So can you please just do us all a favor and shut up for five more minutes!" he said, irritated. "At least I'm attempting at fishing right now I don't see you still trying to build us a shelter anymore."

"Well, sorry," I said, and went to go sit on the rocks. I supposed he was right; I gave up a lot sooner than he did so I had no room to really talk.

Erik waded through the shin deep water back to the sand, and then grabbed his spear before walking back to where he was. After another hour without any luck, he got mad and gave up as well.

"I thought you said you wouldn't stop until you caught one," I teased him as he pouted on the sand.

"There just aren't very many fish there," he said defensively. "Maybe instead of making fun of me, you could try to help."

"How? There's only one potentially viable spear."

"I don't know; go do the girl thing and weave a bunch of palm leaves together to make a net, or something."

"Weave? Sorry, I must have missed that part of Home EC." I said with a laugh.

He huffed, and then a thought seemed to cross his mind.

"What?" I asked.

"There's another reef further out, but we'd have to swim to it."

"Oh no, don't look at me like that. Just because we can swim, doesn't mean we should go out there. There are probably sharks; besides, I don't know how you use that spear thingy. Anyways out of the two of us you're more of the fish expert, than me."

"What makes me a fish expert?" He asked raising one inky eyebrow.

"I'm not into the whole Marine Biology thing as much as you are. If you remember back at school, that was not the crowd I ran with. I mean yes, I'm taking the class and doing fine in it, but you're doing a lot better than I am right now."

"Whatever. Fine, I'll go."

"How can you go? You don't know what's out there," I reminded him.

He didn't answer; he just walked past me and into the trees. I didn't bother asking him where he was going because it seemed as though whenever he was upset, he went into the solitude of the trees to escape my presence. He promised he wouldn't ditch me again over night, so I was confident he'd be back.

I took that time and checked out the rest of the supplies we had left. I dug through my bag to see what else I had put in it. I'd never been more thankful for my over-preparedness as I saw what we had left as far as supplies went. I still had everything I had brought to the site. I had half a can of sunscreen, a small bottle of aloe, a small hair brush, hand sanitizer, a couple tampons for emergencies, bug spray, two water bottles, a small first aid kit, finger clippers and a nail file, and a tube of my favorite cherry chap stick.

I knew that we would run out eventually, of course – sooner rather than later – and then I didn't really know what we would do when that time came. I didn't want to think about then. I didn't want to think about the fact that we might be here longer than that. I knew we could live off this for a little while longer. Our parents would find us before our supplies were all gone.

Usually during Erik's alone time he'd be gone for an hour or two, so I was surprised when he reemerged after just a couple minutes, and even more surprised to see what he was doing.

"What are you doing? Why are you wearing that? I thought you knew how to swim." I asked surprised as he snapped on the life vest.

"I'm getting us some dinner, what do you think I'm doing? And I'm wearing this so I don't drown. You never know what could happen if a wave comes up suddenly." He said as he picked up his spear and starting to walk towards the water.

"And you're planning to use it to swim out to that other reef?"

"Yep."

"And how are you going to bring back the fish if you catch any? If there's not a shark swimming around now, then there will be one once you spear a fish."

"I'll figure it out as I go," he said spitefully.

When he got to deeper water, he flailed around for a minute before finally catching his balance and dog paddling out to the reef. I was beginning to wonder if Erik could swim. He said he could and I remembered him diving into the water to save me but than again I have never seen him actually swim. I did not know what to make of that. What person did not know how to swim at his age? I questioned myself as I watched him swim to the reef. I knew I had to ask him about that but I did not know how to ask without him getting offended on me. Thankfully we didn't see any sharks, but I still wasn't willing to follow him out there.

"There's a lot more fish out here!" he yelled to me as he pulled himself up onto the second reef.

"Well, get one!" I shouted back.

Even from that far, I could see the 'duh' expression on his face, but I just ignored it. Erik stood there and watched the fish for several minutes, and then he jabbed the spear.

"I got one!" he shouted.

"Are you serious?" I asked in disbelief.

He held up the spear, and sure enough, there was a wiggling fish on the end of it. Without warning, he pulled the fish off the end and chucked it at me.

I screamed and ran out of the projected path of the flying fish. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Why didn't you catch it?"

"I didn't know you were throwing it, try warning me next time!"

"Well, pick it up before you lose it!"

I looked down at my feet and saw the dead fish turning in the waves, so without thinking, I reached down and grabbed it. "It's all slimy," I complained.

"Don't drop it!"

"I'm not!" I snapped. The thing was disgusting, and if I wasn't so hungry there was no way I'd stand there and hold it, but I supposed nothing was as bad as eating worms. "What are you doing now? Come back so we can cook it," I said eagerly.

"No, I'm going to get a few more."

"Let's just eat this one first. It'll give you some energy."

"Just be quiet and let me spear some freaking fish!" he said assertively. I definitely wasn't used to hearing him use that tone and it took me by surprise, but I did as he said and kept quiet while he fished. But I wasn't the type of person to easily keep my mouth shut when something was on my mind, so I decided to leave him to it and tend to the fish we already had. I took it back to the cover of the trees and found some more large leaves to place it on, and then brought it back to the beach.

"I have another one!" he shouted at me, and then of course, he tossed it, but I surprised both of us and caught it. "Nice," he said enthusiastically.

"That's one each; come back now," I told him.

"Not yet," he replied quickly.

He looked absolutely ridiculous standing out there with a bright orange life vest and large pointy stick but he didn't seem to care. He was stranded on an island with a girl who was sure to make fun of him and had in the past, but none of that mattered to him. He was focused on getting fish and surviving the day, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't inspiring. He was right, none of that crap mattered and there was no reason to be embarrassed on that island - there wasn't room for it, and we sure as hell didn't have the extra energy to waste on something as superficial as looking good and acting cool.

I decided then that it was time to pull my head out of my ass and do my fair share of contributing to our survival so I gave myself the nauseating task of cleaning the fish he had already caught. It was the last thing I really wanted to do, but it wasn't right that he was doing all the work while I just sat there and watched.

I took out his knife, and winced as I cut the head off the first fish. "Ewww!" I wanted to vomit. "Pull it together, Daae," I told myself with a deep breath, turning my face so I didn't have to smell the stench of the bloody fish. But then something clicked in my mind and I willed myself to just get through it. Once I was determined to get it done, it was much easier and I realized it wasn't even as gross as I was expecting. Next I cut open the abdomen, and rinsed it out in the waves before bringing it back to the fire.

When I got both fish cleaned, skewered, and set over the fire, Erik returned completely soaked.

"You cleaned the fish?" he asked, surprised, as he unsnapped his life vest. "How'd you know how to do that?"

I shrugged. "My dad is an avid fisherman and used to make me go with him. I always refused to clean them before, but I watched enough times to know what to do," I explained.

"Cool," he said. When he opened his vest to take it off, two more fish fell out.

"Wow, you did well," I said impressed.

"It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be once I put my mind to it," he said with a smirk.

I cleaned the other two fish, and then roasted those as well. When they were finished, we sat there and ate them feeling like it was Thanksgiving. The two medium to small sized fish we each had wasn't much by normal standards, but we were beyond stuffed and spent the rest of the evening throwing up.

"Ugh, were they poisonous?" I asked weakly.

"No, I think we just ate too much after not eating anything but berries for days," he explained.

I had already vomited in front of Erik once before, but doing it at the same time as him, side by side, was absolutely disgusting and yet strangely cathartic. He didn't comment on it, and neither did I. We just did what we needed to do and waited for the other to finish as well. When we were both done emptying the contents of our stomachs onto the sand, we helped each other up and walked slowly back to where we had slept the night before. Erik looked at the fading sun just like he always did and I wondered not for the first time what he was looking for. I did not say anything as we laid down wishing for the horrible feeling to just pass as soon as possible, I figured he would tell me when he was ready to and we drifted off to sleep for the night not long after that.

XXXX

The next day came way too soon, and before I was even fully awake, Erik was back in his life vest and back on the reef. I followed his lead and got ready for the morning as well by rebuilding the fire and finding new sticks to roast the fish with. I ticked another day off of our make shift calendar. Today would mark day eight we were on this island. I was still feeling hopeful that today was the day we were getting rescued. My parents won't just give up I knew they won't I just had to keep faith in them. Help was coming I told myself over and over. Erik wasn't gone long before returning successfully with our breakfast, except this time, we were more reserved with our consumption.

"Fish has never tasted so good," I said when we were done.

"Well, we'll be eating more for lunch and dinner and breakfast the next morning. We're pretty much going to be eating fish until we're found," he replied.

I smiled; anything was better than worms. "When we get sick of eating fish, we can always imagine it's something else."

"Like the Neverfood?" he said with a laugh, and I surprised both of us when I knew what he was talking about.

"No, the Neverfood was completely imaginary; at least we have it better than them."

"Wait, you've seen 'Hook'?" he asked.

"I loved that movie growing up," I told him.

"Me too," he said with a grin.

"I think most kids did - at least I know all my friends did," I added quickly, though I wasn't exactly sure why I felt the need to say that. "So, what would be your Neverfood?" I asked after a minute.

"Chicken Parmesan," he said quietly. "I swear I could almost taste it right now. How about you?"

"Honey BBQ wings no, nachos," I said, having a hard time deciding which I wanted more at the moment.

"You like that stuff?" he asked surprised.

"My dad's the biggest sports fan I have ever seen, of course I like honey BBQ wings and nachos," I said with a laugh. "You wouldn't think so when you first meet him though. Why do you look so surprised?"

He shrugged. "I just thought girls like you only ate salads and tofu."

"I'm more of a ballpark food kind of girl," I admitted.

"So, you really eat those things like more than just Neverfood wise? If we were back home right now, you would actually eat nachos?" he asked skeptically.

"I had some the night before we left for the party."

He looked absolutely bewildered. Erik for one moment was completely speechless.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, trying to figure out why this bit of news was so shocking to him.

"No nothing's wrong. I'm just surprised; that's all. Don't girls like you typically worry about how you look?" He asked, gesturing to my body.

"So I'm not like the other girls in the Plastics, so what. As long as I'm happy with myself, that's all that should matter." I said, knowing that he did not mean to offend me.

"How do you stay…looking like that?" He asked still looking at my body.

"Well, I'm active too. Cheerleading isn't just pompoms and flirting with the football players," I told him. "Maybe if you took the time and did the right diet and workout plan. Maybe then you won't have so much trouble putting on some muscle."

I was in no way trying to be mean, and I chose my words carefully so they wouldn't be offensive; thankfully he understood my innocent intentions.

"My mom is a little overprotective, and she doesn't like me doing sports and such," he explained.

"Why?" I asked.

"It has to do with my dad and the way he died. She just doesn't want to lose me the way she did him ." He let his sentence trail off as he realized that was exactly what happened. His poor mother was probably out of her mind with worry for him at the moment, especially considering her history with his father.

"How did he die?" I asked hesitantly.

"He drowned," he said, taking me aback. "It's how I got this." He said pointing to his mask for the first time.

"Are you serious? When did it happen?" I asked feeling worse than I ever had before. If his father drowned, it made sense that his mother wouldn't want him in water to learn to swim if that was the case.

"Let's just say that it changed my mother and me. She never wanted me in the water or to do much physically and I don't like to talk about it much. So please don't say you're sorry: it was a long time ago and we will just leave it at that." He said, ending the conversation.

"So... Do you want to come with me to the lagoon for a dip in the water?" I asked, trying to cheer him up.

"I don't know how to swim." He said so quietly that I almost did not hear him.

That bit of news shocked me for a minute. I had to collect my thoughts together before I said something stupid and regretted it later. "But that don't make much sense, you jumped in and saved me at the party. You swam with me to the dingy."

"Yeah, I did, but it's hard to describe how I knew what to do but I really wouldn't call that swimming anyways." He shrugged sheepishly.

I just looked at him like he just sprouted three heads and a tail. "Why would you risk your life like that to save me? You could've drowned." I asked, trying to figure out why he would risk his life like that.

"Well someone had to jump in and save you. I just happened to be the only one willing to take the risk." He said, dismissing risking his life as if it was nothing.

"I'm not sure if I have properly thanked you for saving my life. So thank you." I said, truly meaning it; I was starting to feel bad about how I treated him at school.

"You're welcome, but like I said, someone had to do it."

"Is that why you were wearing the life vest?" I asked, trying to fit all the puzzle pieces together.

"Yeah." He said looking out towards the water. "I know what you must be thinking a fifteen year old who doesn't know how to swim is just strange."

"I knew something was wrong when we went swimming in the lagoon the other day. I thought your lack of swimming was just..."

"Pathetic," he finished for me. "Yeah, I know."

"So, why didn't you learn on your own? I mean, you're fifteen; you could have learned at school or something."

"I've always been busy with other things."

"Like Chess Club, Mathletes, and Art Club?" I assumed.

He shrugged. "I only ever had one friend. Don't get me wrong: Nadir is a great guy and the best friend anybody could ever ask for. It's that out of the both of us Nadir has always been the social butterfly and I never really knew how to make friends, so those were things that I could do alone."

"But you don't enjoy them?" I asked.

"There have been times when I wished I was into more normal things. I think having socially acceptable pastimes would make it easier for certain people to like me."

"Certain people like Kaitlyn," I guessed.

But then he got uncomfortable. "I thought we agreed to not speak unless it's about survival," he said defensively.

"You know, unrequited love is pretty normal in high school," I assured him, trying to make him a little less embarrassed about it. "Twenty years from now you won't even remember her name."

"Yeah, and what would you know about it? There isn't a guy in school who would turn you down."

"Well I don't know about it personally but a lot of my friends have had that problem."

He shook his head. "Can we just stick to life and death topics please," he reiterated.

"Fine," I said. "But maybe since we're here for however long we might be here for, I can work with you on swimming."

"Really?" he asked surprised by my offer.

"Yeah, I used to be an instructor at the swim school. I mean, I never taught anyone over the age of ten, but I guess I can make an exception."

"Gee thanks," he said sarcastically.

"Oh, come on, I'm not trying to be mean."

"No, you're just teasing me."

"Well, if we can't joke around with each other, who are we going to joke with?"

He rolled his eyes. "When do you want to start?" he asked unenthusiastically.

"I'm still hoping to be rescued soon, so we'll start tomorrow and see how far we can get. If you can't swim by the time we leave here, then I'll continue lessons at home. We don't have to tell anyone."

He shook his head. "If I haven't learned by the time we leave here, then I never will. We don't have to have secret meetings back home."

"I didn't mean it like that," I told him honestly; he obviously misunderstood me. "I just meant secret because your mom doesn't want you to take lessons, not that I would be embarrassed to be seen with you."

"It doesn't really matter to me either way. And you don't have to automatically pretend to be my friend when we get back either; just because we were stuck here together for however long we end up being stuck here for, doesn't mean we're bonded for life."

I didn't respond. I was having mixed feelings about Erik right about now and I did not know what to make of that. On one hand I wanted to be his friend and shout it to the world but on the other hand. It may sound mean and shallow, but the truth of the matter was that I didn't want to be his friend, not really anyway. I wanted to just wake up in my bedroom back home and realize it was all just a horrible dream. I wanted to go back to my life and pick up right where I left off but I wasn't dreaming, and I was secretly starting to lose confidence that we would get rescued at all. All these confusing and conflicting thoughts were running through my head as I laid down in the sand.

_Mommy, Daddy, where are you?_

**A/N: So what do you all think? Let me know by leaving a review good or bad but please do flame me. This is after all still very new to me writing in first person and all. I would like to know what you all make of this chapter like it hate it. Review and let me know. Chapter seven should be posted soon as I said I'm in the process of writing chapter ten now. So with that thought in mind I shall leave you all to your thoughts. **


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